June 2022:

New research published by PatientView shares how patient groups rank the pharma industry and individual companies by their ESG practices.

A term created by the United Nations Global Compact Office in 2005, ESG is commonly used to denote ‘environmental, social, and governance value drivers in asset management and financial research’.

Since then, the importance of ESG has grown as the financial implications associated with environmental and social damage have become all too apparent for governments, businesses, and institutions. The pharmaceutical industry included.

Most, if not all, pharma companies have developed responses to ESG-related challenges as it affects their inward investment. PatientView’s newest report – ‘Pharma and ESG: the Patient Perspective’ – amplifies the patient voice in ongoing ESG discussions. Here, we’ve taken a few prominent examples of patient group opinion across different regions:

 

“Our organisation assesses the improvement in the provision of healthcare by pharmaceutical companies a lot. That footprint goes beyond developing medicines, vaccines, supplies, and diagnostic tests, to meeting the medical needs that are pressing in the world. A lot of companies perform this work on sustainability and responsibility, but it is not central for them. Finally, we assess the environmental impacts that the companies cause.”

— National arthritis patient group, Brazil

 

“From an environmental perspective, our group is focused on how the company prioritises their international efforts to work with the regions on key efforts to minimize and reduce the impacts on the environment, and public declarations of their commitment to help reduce climate change.”

—National mental-health patient group, Canada

 

“I follow REPTRAK annual reports, and their general guidance on how to assess corporate responsibility as a whole. This includes ESG. I also read company whitepapers when I can, and have time. I subscribe to varying industry newsletters, and find out a lot via those. I share what I can within our network via our twice-daily newsletter. And—also—ad hoc, when I come across items of interest.”

—National rare-disease patient group, UK

 

“Based on reports produced by companies, I would also like to see more interaction with companies concerning their social footprint.”

— National rare-disease patient group, Finland

 

It is clear that patient opinion is moving towards the idea that pharma companies must demonstrate their commitments to society at large, and to the planet as a whole, alongside research and provision of healthcare. Many patient advocacy groups go further and suggest more proactive interaction between pharma and patients, to avoid patient perspectives being sidelined in favour of investor opinion.

Read more in PatientView’s recently published 2022 report: “Pharma and ESG: the Patient Perspective 2022”