IOPA was established in 2017 to engage with opioid manufacturers, distributors, and retail pharmacies on opioid-related business risks that have implications for long-term shareholders, communities, and the economy. In 2023, the IOPA wound down its collaborative efforts. In its five years of operations, the coalition actively engaged numerous corporate boards and executives in dialogue, filed more than a hundred shareholder proposals, and took on the most important governance reforms within major pharmaceutical companies to better manage societal and enterprise risks.
Partnership for a Healthier America has launched its Food Equity Opportunity Map in partnership with the University of Maryland Baltimore County, highlighting where improving access to good food would make the greatest impact and allowing everyone to see what Food Equity looks like in their community for the first time.
A new I-MAK study exposing the profound impact of extended patent protection that limits biosimilar competition and maintains high drug prices for patients and payers. The study highlights the staggering $158 billion in revenue amassed by drug makers after the expiration of primary patent protection from just four biologic drugs: Humira, Avastin, Rituxan, and Lantus.
In a letter sent to 21 companies including Coca-Cola ($KO), Kraft ($KHC), Unilever ($UL), McDonald’s ($MCD), and Amazon ($AMZN) among other iconic brands, the investors pointed to the COVID-19 crisis and how it has exposed inequitable systems that contribute to the economic and health struggles of Black, Latinx and Indigenous communities in the U.S.
The investors argue that the way food is developed and marketed to communities of color is another example of how racial inequities can be reinforced, deleteriously impacting the health and well-being of already-vulnerable populations.
The letters were endorsed by 38 investors collectively representing over US$2t in assets under management.
On August 31, 2023 investors released a statement voicing deep concern about lawsuits brought by pharma companies and trade groups to block the U.S. government’s ability to negotiate fair drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries.
The statement, which was endorsed by more than 30 institutional investors, is being sent to Astellas Pharma, Inc. ($ALPMY), AstraZeneca ($AZN), Bristol-Myers Squibb Company ($BMS), Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ), and Merck & Co, Inc. ($MRK) as well as trade associations PhRMA and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which each filed lawsuits against the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). While the lawsuits highlight a variety of grievances – from “extortion” to “compulsory speech”, they share a common theme: that the government’s attempt to negotiate prices on behalf of millions of Medicare recipients is “unconstitutional”.
A new report published by the Access to Medicine Foundation. It is becoming increasingly clear that releasing antibiotic waste into the environment can drive antimicrobial resistance (AMR). In helping to curb this rapidly rising global health threat, pharmaceutical companies can ensure the production of their lifesaving antibiotics does not inadvertently contribute to drug resistance. A new report from the Foundation zeroes in on this issue, setting out three key areas pharmaceutical companies can focus on to ensure they limit AMR risk from manufacturing more effectively.
On June 1, 2023 ICCR submitted the following letter to members of Congress urging them to support legislation that builds healthy, equitable, and sustainable food systems.
Child health experts raise numerous concerns about the negative effects of children’s exposure to unhealthy digital food marketing, including advertising and branded product placements on child-oriented videos.
When pharmaceutical companies set targets for executive performance, and base the amount of their compensation on meeting those targets, they often use profit metrics that are not based on Generally-Accepted Accounting Principles (like “Adjusted Earnings Per Share”) which routinely filter out legal settlement costs and fines from the end result. By excluding the $5 billion in opioid charges from the calculation of its key earnings metric (“Operational Earnings Per Share”), for example, the board at Johnson & Johnson inflated CEO payouts by more than $2 million in 2019 and 2020.
We believe this is a salient issue for investors because performance metrics for executives help incentivize the right level of risk-taking. If they routinely filter out the real-world results of that risk-taking, the incentives are skewed and executives are not held accountable for their decisions.
We support compensation arrangements that incentivize senior executives to drive growth and shareholder value while safeguarding company operations, corporate reputations over the long-term, and the people, communities and environment affected by executive decisions.
This report summarizes the work of the Investors for Opioid Accountability (IOA) from July 1, 2017 to July 31, 2019. The IOA is a diverse global coalition of 57 members representing public, faith-based, labor, and sustainability funds, as well as investment managers, with $4 trillion in collective assets under management and advisement. The report covers the following topics:
••The Business Case for the IOA;
••IOA Engagement Strategy & Companies;
••Key Governance Proposals for Opioid Companies;
••Global Opioid Business Risks beyond the United States; and
••IOA Results by Company.