Investors cite concerns, including recent funding freezes, exits from global health bodies, and appointment of unqualified officials that may threaten equitable access to healthcare.
NEW YORK, NY, THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 2025 – Members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility today announced they had issued a public statement calling on corporations to champion policies that protect and advance public health.
ICCR members have long engaged with leading healthcare companies to advocate for access to and affordability of medicines, vaccines, nutrition, and health technologies, especially for populations that have been systematically marginalized. Their statement today was driven by the administration’s recent funding freezes, departures from global health organizations, and the appointment of unqualified officials to lead key national public health institutions – actions that investors argue threaten public health both within the U.S. and worldwide.
Their statement asks companies to take four key steps: ensure that their political activities and public policy engagements support the advancement of global public health; assess the impacts of their businesses on the human right to health; adopt policies and processes that ensure the right to health is upheld within their operations; and support the appointment of individuals with appropriate experience to lead key U.S. public health positions.
“The defunding, dismantling, and abandonment of structures and initiatives that undergird public health systems both domestically and globally should concern every business,” said Lydia Kuykendal, Director of Shareholder Advocacy for Mercy Investment Services. “These actions and policies will have direct and long-lasting consequences for company prosperity through the diminished health of their workforces and indirectly, through diminished public health that will create broader and persistent economic burdens.”
The investors are particularly concerned by the dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a dramatic move expected to broadly jeopardize global health and national security, while also costing U.S. businesses, universities, and farmers an estimated $28.9 billion in funding.
Investors also questioned the U.S.’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO), a move that is widely expected to destabilize global health systems at a time when international cooperation is most needed to solve emerging health threats, such as Monkeypox and avian influenza. Also of concern is the dismantling of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR), a decision widely expected to result in an increase in global AIDS-related deaths and new HIV infections.
“As long-term institutional investors, we view robust public health systems as critical to a thriving economy and the security of our portfolios,” said Amy Carr, Senior Shareholder Advocate for Friends Fiduciary. “We call on businesses to use their influence to demonstrate their support for their workers, suppliers, customers, and investors by standing up for their right to health.”
The investor statement also addressed recent staffing decisions by the administration, including mass layoffs and the placement of personnel with inadequate training and expertise to lead key government healthcare agencies.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) houses the largest research enterprise in the world, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration, and manages the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The Department’s work in disease prevention, healthcare delivery, research, drug development, and food safety is relied upon daily by every U.S. citizen and every business.
“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) oversees vital public health programs and is a pivotal U.S. agency,” said Meg Jones-Monteiro, ICCR’s Senior Director – Health Equity and Evaluation. “To fulfill its mandate to protect public health and foster economic stability, HHS must be staffed by only the most qualified and credentialed candidates and its policies must remain grounded in robust and impartial research and sound science that is thoroughly vetted.”
In their statement, the investors affirmed affordable and equitable healthcare not just as a human right, but a moral imperative and an economic necessity essential to the well-being of citizens, the workforce, and a thriving economy.
About the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) is a broad coalition of more than 300 institutional investors collectively representing over $4 trillion in invested capital. ICCR members, a cross-section of faith-based investors, asset managers, pension funds, foundations, and other long-term institutional investors, have over 50 years of experience engaging with companies on environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) issues that are critical to long-term value creation. ICCR members engage hundreds of corporations annually in an effort to foster greater corporate accountability. Visit our website www.iccr.org and follow us on LinkedIn, Bsky and X.