The transition to a model of sustainable development – considered in the broader sense that embraces environmental, social and economic aspects – is an evolution that the pharmaceutical industry cannot ignore. The commitment required of all social actors, as per the 1987 Brundtland Report’s definition of sustainability, is to ensure that development “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to satisfy their own needs.” This universalist objective has been adopted over recent years by an increasing number of social parties and governments, not least in Italy, where the defense of health and the environment is now enshrined in the Constitution.
In this context of important and rapid changes, the pharmaceutical industry is facing new challenges and has been transitioning for some time now to a sustainable growth model, as witnessed by the many good practices adopted by companies all over the world, including Italy. Nevertheless, the pressure from forces internal and external to companies – such as the wave of EU Green Deal legislative proposals – is making management of the transition more complex.
Environmental sustainability is one of the pharmaceutical industry’s main, if not its most significant, challenges in terms of impact and complexity. This is true for Italy, which ranks among Europe’s top producers and, more in general, for an entire sector characterized by long and intricate production lines often involving production phases or suppliers located in countries where environmental regulation is scarce or non-existent. Yet, economic sustainability is fundamental to ensuring all patients access to new drug treatments. Indeed, with the availability of increasingly effective and personalized therapies tailored to the specific features of the individual patient, making healthcare systems sustainable and reconciling accessibility with innovation is a balance that depends not only on companies but also on policy-makers.
New, and especially digital, technologies are changing pharmaceutical industry paradigms and playing an important role in meeting the challenges of sustainability, offering solutions that can help improve the efficiency of research, production and organizational models. These instruments are vital also to reducing environmental impact while at the same time increasing the prosperity and quality of life of employees that work and live in the communities where companies are located.
Sustainability is both a challenge and an opportunity for pharmaceutical firms, offering an occasion to create economic value – given the growing attention with which financial market observers consider these aspects – but also social value, generating positive runoff for the environment. Policies that neglect economic effects can backfire however, transforming opportunity into risk or damaging the economy itself. For the Italian and European pharmaceutical industry, that risk is twofold since the sector is strategic to both public health and the economy; inadequate policies can compromise business competitiveness, undermining industry presence as well as the availability of medicines, resulting in negative fallout on population health.
Thus, a sustainable future must be the fruit of a systemic approach involving all actors – companies, suppliers, institutions, patients and the civil society. For the pharmaceutical industry, and not only, the path to sustainability must include a paradigm shift; a new way of doing business in which social threats are factored into industry strategies. Only in this way will it be possible to galvanize both society and stakeholders in meeting the goals of an urgent sustainability challenge that cannot be met alone.