Healthcare systems – end customers
Customers of the pharmaceutical industry, such as wholesalers, pharmacies, and healthcare systems, are becoming increasingly more interested in the end-to-end lifecycle of medicines, expecting full transparency from manufacturers regarding their suppliers. While the focus has historically been on quality, efficacy, and safety of the medicines, an expanded focus on EHS and sustainability areas such as:
• Pharmaceuticals in the Environment / Antimicrobial Resistance
• Process safety and chemical management
• Industrial hygiene
• Carbon reduction
• Ethics and human rights
• Governance and management systems controls
Investment Community
The financial investment community has collaboratively produced guidance to the biopharmaceutical sector with the request to communicate and report on key Sustainability and Environment, Social, Governance (ESG) initiatives externally – through the Biopharma Sustainability Roundtable initiative (BSRT).
As a result of this, the financial investment community is looking at how they can attach offerings, such as green bonds, to sustainability programs. While the focus of the financial investment community has been on the R&D pipeline, pricing, access to medicines, and quality – this ESG communication guidance highlights key sustainability focus areas:
• Supply chain management
• Climate Change
• Environmental Impacts
• Antimicrobial Resistance
Governments and Regulations
Governments bring a growing driver to understand how organizations are governing and engaging their supplier base to protect the environment overall, as well as the security of supply. Governments are connecting some of their environmental drivers to their medicine supply incentives, as a continued learning from the pandemic. Focus includes:
• Protect the environment, resource security, and overall population health
• Link supply chain oversight into future regulatory frameworks
• Prioritize sustainable procurement