Big pharma CEOs announce net zero action plan

AstraZeneca, GSK, Merck KGaA, Novo Nordisk, Roche, Samsung Biologics and Sanofi have announced a new joint plan to address the healthcare sector’s carbon footprint. The group has partnered through the Sustainable Markets Initiative Health Systems Task Force, a public-private partnership launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in 2021.

The pharmaceutical sector is a major contributor to the world’s overall carbon footprint, producing even more emissions per year than the automotive industry.

The climate crisis has harmful repercussions on public health, resulting in a rise in infections diseases, malnutrition, premature deaths and mental health issues.  The World Health Organization (WHO) states that air pollution causes seven million premature deaths globally each year while extreme heat is responsible for the deaths of five million people annually.

The Task Force is aiming to act collectively to address emissions in three key areas: supply chains, patient care pathways, and clinical trials.

Supply chain emissions

A 2019 report by Healthcare Without Harm found that 71 percent of emissions produced by the healthcare sector are derived from the supply chain, through the production, transport, and disposal of pharmaceuticals. These also include other chemicals, food and agricultural products, medical devices, hospital equipment and instruments.

Supply chains are a major producer of emissions within pharmaceutical companies – Novo Nordisk for instance, has found that 80 percent of its emissions from product distribution were from shipping its products by air.

Read our report: How hybrid container solutions benefit pharma supply chains

To address this the Task Force members have announced they will switch to renewable power and evaluate renewable power purchase agreements in China and India by 2023.

Members have also committed to transition car fleets to zero-emission vehicles by 2030.

Patient care pathways

More than half of the health sector’s footprint is attributed to energy use, primarily electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning. It also includes emissions from operational components like anaesthetic gases and metered-dose inhalers, both of which use potent greenhouse gases.

The Task Force has stated it will collaborate with stakeholders across the healthcare sector as well as patients to raise awareness of the need to decarbonize care pathways. It will also create an emissions calculation standard for specific diseases, enabling stakeholders to measure and track emissions across the care pathway and explore strategies for decarbonization.

Digitizing clinical trials

Clinical trials have a substantial carbon footprint due to the energy used on clinical trial sites, travel to and from sites and the shipping of medicinal products. The Sustainable Health Coalition estimates that if clinical research spending is in line with emissions, it is responsible for producing 100 megatonnes of CO2 emissions per year, equivalent to the total annual emissions of Belgium.

Read more: Five ways pharma is reducing its carbon emissions

The Task Force aims to establish a common framework to measure the emissions in Phase II and II clinical trials by 2023, with companies starting to report the emissions produced by their clinical trials from 2025 onwards. 

Incentives will also be introduced for clinical research organizations to reduce emissions, including through the use of digital solutions. There is a target of 90 percent of trials starting in 2025 to include a review of how digital solutions could reduce emissions.

Quick links

• Single-use vs. reusable equipment: Which is more sustainable?
• Sustainability in pharma: how do we measure up?
• Top 10 pharma execs leading sustainability efforts

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