Redefining the concept of sustainability in the pharmaceutical industry

Redefining the concept of sustainability in the pharmaceutical industry

Recentlysustainability has become a priority for most companies, with teams of employees in major companies dedicated to following up on such files, providing strong messages about their importance, and promoting each company’s efforts to achieve its goals, but when it comes to the real and practical impacts of these efforts on consumers, the effectiveness of these efforts is often insufficient.

In the pharmaceutical industry, sustainability is often a generic, non-specific buzzword, and the goal of using the word “sustainability” seems to be to maintain profits in the short term, rather than to preserve people’s health in the long term.

Patient-Centered Approach

Although investors today judge companies based on their performance in environmental, socialand corporate governance (ESG) practices before making their investments, an analysis in 2021 showed that only 0.2% of companies around the world are strongly aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which is certainly a worrying percentage, especially in the health sector, given that health itself is an investment. sustainable; Therefore, access to pharmaceutical products and health care services must be sustainable for everyone, regardless of where they live, and sustainability efforts must focus on long-term investment in achieving health equity.

While pharmaceutical companies now talk a lot about their commitment to a “patient-centered” approach, and while significant progress has also been made in the past decade in understanding the benefits of a patient-centered approach to research and development, Pharmaceutical companies' so-called patient-centric approach is rarely seen in how they view sustainability in healthcare.

To give just one example of the challenges people in low-income countries can face in accessing long-term treatment, consider the experience of this 60-year-old electrician in Kenya, where he received life-saving treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia through the Max Access Solutions program.

This program - and similar programs - works to access drugs donated by pharmaceutical companies to reach those in need in poor countries. Despite this, the man’s suffering did not end. Rather, with free treatment, he sold everything he owned so that he could travel to and from the clinic. To receive treatment in Nairobi.

Between short-term investment and long-term investment

In a world where an individual may need to sell his possessions in order to reach a hospital for treatment, achieving sustainability in the health sector and the pharmaceutical industry will require efforts from multiple angles. Here we see three practical steps that pharmaceutical companies can take to become truly sustainable.

First: These companies must realize that sustainability is not short-term profitability, but rather an investment that will ultimately transform low-resource countries into functioning markets. In this context, a recent study conducted by the Brookings Institute found that every $1 invested in the health of low-income countries achieves an economic return of between $2 and $4. These investments can therefore accelerate the pace of economic development, increase everyone’s access to health care, and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Second: These companies need to frame an annual budget consistent with the size of the investment, to enhance access to medicines in the same way they do with research and development budgets; Consistent, long-term investment is essential to achieving sustainability.

Third: These companies must proactively include patients when developing drug access strategies, and they must measure success through patient outcomes, not just through sales. So when designing access programs, companies must ask whether their treatments are affordable and sustainable for people over the long term?

Although the Access to Medicines Index for the year 2022, issued by the “Access to Medicine” organization, has recorded progress by some of the major international pharmaceutical companies in expanding the scope of access to medicine for patients; Most of these efforts still ignore the poorest segments.

Pharmaceutical companies’ responsibility

People living in low-income countries often do not get the treatments they need, including medicines and other health care products, which can be a particularly acute problem for women and girls, as they are more affected by poor health care.

Companies need to develop new treatments, but they must also ensure that both core products and cutting-edge treatments are continually available to more people in more countries.

Corporate responsibility does not stop there, as pharmaceutical companies also play a role in ensuring that healthcare systems support, rather than just supporting a limited set of disease areas, that patients’ needs are met across the continuum of care.

In addition to access to innovative medicines, people around the world also need timely access to these medicines, especially those that treat serious diseases, as well as access to preventive vaccines and other essential products, such as medical oxygen.

One of the basic requirements for increasing access to medicines is ensuring secure supply chains, an area in which the pharmaceutical industry plays a central role, as it can reduce the risks of shortages and stock-outs through supplier diversification, capacity building, and technology transfer; To support local manufacturing in resource-poor environments.

With a true commitment to a patient-centered approach, the private and public sectors can work together to build a more resilient and stable health care system among the poorest and most vulnerable people in society.

Ultimately it is all about monitoring pharmaceutical companies' progress on the path towards sustainability, while making long-term commitments to access and support for different segments of health systems, rather than focusing on introducing and promoting new consumer medical products.

Aid alone is not enough

Of the approximately 650 million people in the world living below the poverty line, many of them depend on foreign aid and donated products to obtain basic medical care, and while new economic models are needed to ensure access to medicines that does not depend solely on aid and donations, and while true transformation can only come through sustained access to affordable health care; Donation-based programs remain a lifeline for people who have no other way to access the medications they need.

Continuing the pursuit of sustainability, pharmaceutical companies can build on efforts such as the Max Foundation for Chronic Myeloid Leukemia, and other similar programs and initiatives, to help low-resource countries achieve economic sustainability in health care over time.

In conclusion, every pharmaceutical company that is serious about sustainability must challenge itself to reformulate its interpretation of what “sustainability” means. These companies also need to stimulate innovation in product design and development and facilitate access to them by providing the appropriate resources. To ensure that all patients are served equally, which will necessarily mean increasing profits, as an inevitable result of increasing access, but there is no way to do this unless the patient is truly first and foremost for these companies.