Faith-Based Investors Urge Pharma Companies to Increase Access and Affordability of Life-Saving Medicines
As UN members ratify Sustainable Development Goals, shareholders call for more affordable medicines and vaccins to address disparities in global health.
NEW YORK, NY, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28TH, 2015 - A group 48 institutional investors and members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility who advocate for greater corporate responsibility on global health concerns, has sent letters to major pharmaceutical companies encouraging them to bring their business goals into closer alignment with the newly adopted UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Investors sent letters to Abbvie, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Gilead, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson and Johnson, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche and Sanofi, arguing that SDG three: “Attain healthy lives for all at all ages” underpins and is connected to all 17 of the SDGs, and should remain at the center of pharmaceutical companies’ business plans.
As the exorbitant pricing of life-saving drugs by branded pharmaceuticals comes under increased scrutiny as highlighted most recently by Turing Pharmaceutical’s widely-criticized price hike of Daraprim, the letter is meant to remind drug companies of their social contract and moral obligation to promote equitable access to medicines, and requests specific action plans that support this goal.
The letter states “As our world embarks on implementing the UN 2030 SDGs, ICCR’s Global Health Group sees pharmaceutical companies playing a critical role in addressing the need for vaccines and for treatment of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis C, neglected tropical diseases (NTD) and diabetes that impact the health of millions, but particularly the world’s most vulnerable. All of us, including corporations and their investors, are urged to use our resources and influence to benefit the common good. The SDGs reinforce our belief as socially responsible and faith-based investors that this is a time of global action.”
The ICCR member signatories to the letter include faith-based health care organizations, religious congregations and socially responsible asset management companies that advocate for improved corporate responsibility on a variety of environmental and social issues including access to medicines both here in the U.S. and globally. A subset of ICCR members has been formally engaging the companies individually on access to medicines to treat HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and other neglected diseases for over 15 years. They have also convened industry-wide roundtables on changes needed in pharmaceutical companies’ business model in order to increase access to medicines and on patent licensing for HIV/AIDS medicines through the Medicines Patent Pool in order to make them available for less expensive generic manufacture.
The letter is prompted by the release of a white paper developed by two of the companies, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer, with the support of the Business & Health Action Group for Post 2015, titled The Central Role of Health in the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda. The paper underscores how health is implicated in and supports each of the 17 SDGs and further identifies how companies can help meet them: all companies must embrace the full scope of the SDGs, ultimately to establish goals and key performance indicators against as many SDGs as possible, assess their impact, and report the outcomes externally.
The investor letter stated that the group will be meeting with their companies this fall to review goals and action plans to address the SDGs and promote the access, affordability and infrastructure required to deliver life-saving medicines where they are most need.
About the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)
Currently celebrating its 44th year, ICCR is the pioneer coalition of active shareholders who view the management of their investments as a catalyst for change. Its 300 member organizations with over $100 billion in AUM have an enduring record of corporate engagement that has demonstrated influence on policies promoting justice and sustainability in the world. www.iccr.org