Pfizers miljö- och ansvarsblogg

Pharmaceuticals and Environment at Läkemedelskongressen

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I have today acted both as moderator and lecturer in a Pharmaceuticals and the Environment session at Läkemedelskongressen, arranged by the Swedish Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences. It has definitely been an interesting day. It started with introductory remarks by Anders Blanck, managing director for LIF (the research based pharmaceutical industry in Sweden). Anders said something very thought worthy about good, safe and rational use of pharmaceuticals. Of course he stressed the importance of providing the correct medicine and dosage, at the right time, to the right patient, but he also stressed the importance of the price of the medicine, equal care and treatment, and not the least environmental impacts. This was of course a prefect introduction to today’s key note address from Joakim Larsson from Sahlgrenska Akademin, at University of Gothenborg.

Joakim Larsson

I have mentioned Joakim’s research several times here at the blog. See for instance the following blog posts: Aug 16 2010, Jan 20 2011, Feb 18 2011, and Jul 4 2011. Joakim gave as always a very interesting, and horryfying, description of the situation at the Patancheru waste water treatment plant outside Hyderabad, in India. He decribed the risks with releases of active pharmaceuticals ingridients to the environment, focusing on the risks for antimicrobial resistance development. He also stressed the importance of collaborations between all parties in order to manage the situation.

Several actors involved...

He finished the key note speech with a slide summarizing the challenges:

Some challenges

As a moderator for the break-out session focusing in more detail on pharmaceuticals and the environment I then gave a short summary on “what is going on” in EU and here in Sweden when it comes to pharmaceuticals in the environment, e.g.:

- EU Water Framework Directive, which may come to include specific pharmaceutical substances

- The EU Pharmas project

- The MistraPharma project

- The Swedish MPA proposal on inclusion of environmental requirements into GMP

- The All Party Committee on Environmental Objectives

- The National Pharmaceutical Strategy

- Sofia Wallström’s review

After the my introduction, Åke Wennmalm from SustainPharma (and previously environemntal director att Stockholm County Council) gave us some detailed insight in environmental risk assessments on pharmaceuticals substances. You can read more on this link to the classification scheme on fass.se.

Åke Wennmalm

Åke also added some of our latests thoughts upon environmental assessments of the whole products. This has been the topic for several discussions during the last 6 months (see blog posts from Sept 28, Sept 1, May 17, May 11, and March 28).

In order for the industry to provide “green products” it is of greatest importance to utilize a green chemistry toolbox. Eva Jacobsson from AstraZeneca helped us to realize the large opportunities in green chemistry when it comes to lower the environmental impacts from manufacturing operations.

Eva Jacobsson, AZ

Eva gave us very good insight in AstraZeneca’s work processes to greening the manufacturing processes, as early as possible during the development phase.

Green Chemistry at AZ

But she also discussed Green Drug Design, very interesting. However really difficult… Could we possibly be successful in desiging the substances perfectly from an environmental point of view from the beginning, e.g. easily degradable substances, with low toxicity and no potential for bioaccumulation?

Green Drug Design

We then expanded our scope of discussion by looking into another industrial sector - textile and clothing. As always it was a real pleasure to listen to Renée Andersson from Indiska.

Renee Andersson, Indiska

I have listened to Renée’s experiences from her work with Indiska’s supply chain several times before (see for instance my blog post from Aug 26, 2010) and it is my clear opinion that we as an industry have a lot to learn from Indiska and their peers. Which is not really surprising since they have been dealing with these issues, in very much detail, years before it came up high on our industry agenda.

It was then my turn to enter the stage as a lecturer. I tried both to summarize reflections from the previous speakers, and to look into the future. What are our challenges of tomorrow, and what will our agenda look like in the coming 10 years?

I am on stage...

My final, summarizing slide was this one, where I discuss several aspects of pharmaceuticals and the environment which I believe will be crucial for our future success.

A very interesting day, with good presentations and discussions!

CSR training session at SWETIC

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Yesterday I participated in a CSR-training session at SWETIC (Swedish Association for Testing, Inspection, and Certification). SWETIC’s own presentation of the session can be found here.

After a brief introduction by Magnus Davidsson from SWETIC, Mattis Bergquist from Only R, gave some introductory remarks to CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) as a concept.

Mattis presents CSR as a concept

After the introduction to CSR from Mattis, I presented Pfizer’s sustainability platform, as a business case for CSR. If you have followed my blog over recent years you have become fairly familiar with our work. If you have not, I recommend that you follow these links:

- Pfizer’s corporate webpage, “Doing business responsibly”

- Pfizer’s Swedish webpage, where you will find information on our sustainability initiatives (in Swedish) in three levels:

– Level 1: “Pfizer och Ansvarsfullt företagande”

– Level 2: “CSR- och miljöarbete - en central del av vårt ansvarstagande”

– Level 3: “Hållbarhetsarbete i praktiken”

You could also read my two blogposts from October 11 back in 2009. There I give general information on our CSR and environmental initiatives under the title “Pfizer and Corporate Responsibility, Part 1” and “Pfizer and Corporate Responsibility, Part 2“. Somethings have of course developed since then, but the general idea still holds true.

Mattis entered the stage again after my presentation, and he went into more details on the different standards, rules, legislative tools etc. within the field of CSR.

Different rules, standards etc on CSR

Regardless of which system a company chooses to base their CSR-program upon, management commitment is of course crucial. Johannes Ingerby from The Information Company presented tools to secure management buy-in, commitment, and focus.

CSR as an opportunity or a risk...

Johannes, who has a great deal of experience in the field, told us that unfortunately still most management teams look upon CSR as “a risk to be managed”. Hence, it is rather being controlled than being used as a strategic business objective. He nevertheless presented balanced score cards for using CSR as a strategic business measure, in addition to a control card where CSR-issues are one of many measures to follow.

Johannes Ingerby from The Information Company

We then got the opportunity to listen to Åsa Edman from the governmental procurement investigation. The investigation, which should be reported no later than June 28, 2012, will review both financial as well as political perspectives of public procurement. Within the frame of “political considerations”, both social and environmental criteria will be looked upon. Åsa then gave the word to Lisa Sennström från Miljöstyrningsrådet, MSR, (in English: The Swedish Environmental Management Council). MSR have developed several guidance documents for social and environmental criteria in public procurement. One of the areas where such criteria have been developed is for pharmaceuticals. You can read my reflections on this matter in a number of my previous blog posts. Read for instance my blog post from Sept 8 this year, and follow the links within that blog post for further details.

The training session ended with further discussions on ISO 26000, and whether or not it will be certifiable, verifiable or nothing of that kind at all… The discussion was led by Dag Sjöholm from SP who acts as chairman on “SIS‘ verifying group of ISO 26000″. Read more regarding my views on this debate in the blog post from Nov 26, 2010, and via the links within that blog post.

Thanks SWETIC for interesting discussions on several aspects of Corporate Social Responsibility!

The Swedish Innovation Strategy and Social Innovation

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Ministry for Enterprise, Energy and Communications arranged a breakfast seminar today on social innovation and entrepreneurship. The seminar is part of ongoing activities within the framework of the development of a Swedish National Innovation Strategy, which is to be presented in 2012.

Håkan Ekengren, State Secretary at the Ministry, welcomed us all and gave a brief introduction on social inovation in general and the connection to the National Innovation Strategy specifically. He stressed the importance of both social innovation and social entrepreneurship, and hoped that the introductory lectures by Eva Engquist (from Malmö University and “Mötesplatsen för Social innovation och samhällsentreprenörskap“), myself, and Lars Jannick Johansen (President and founder of “Den Sociale Kapitalfond” in Denmark), and the following work-shop should result in several good ideas and experiences to bring into the development of the Innovation Strategy.

The panelists of today

Eva Engquist gave us her insight in the whole area of social innovation and social entrepreneurship. She saw three drivers for the strong focus on social innovation presently:

1. Ongoing financial crises in US and Europe, on the same time as the societal needs and demands upon society probably never have been larger. Ageing populations, unemployment rates, increasing poverty, and environmental problems are just a number of challenges facing societies.

2. Increasing pressure from NGOs, e.g. environmental organizations

3. The Social Media revolution

Some of the areas where Eva told us Malmö Univeristy and “Mötesplatsen” are focusing are perspectives of management and organizational issues of social innovation, but also financing issues and the need for development of new business models.

In my lecture I fully agreed with Eva on the need for development of new business models in order for social innovation to become successful. I gave examples from health care and the pharmaceutical industry, of which you can read more via this links:

- “Prevention of illnesses and creation of wellbeing”

- “Social innovation and social entrepreneurship”

- “4 steps to a sustainable use of pharmaceuticals”

- “CSR - en intregrerad del av affären”

Lars Jannick Johansen described the huge potential he sees in social enterprises and social innovation. Just bear in mind that the social economy is roughly 10% of the total GNP in Europe. That is a large market… He told us that Sweden has a lot to learn from e.g. UK when it comes to “financial innovations” which would help social innovation and entrepreneurship to further develop.

We then divided up into 6 work groups and discussed e.g.:

- what social innovation actually means

- which parties are involved and which ones are not but should be involved

- experiences to be shared

- in which areas we feel that social innovation is of extra importance for Sweden

Some of the common conclusions from the discussions were

- the need for both social innovation and entrepreneurship. The innovation needs a business case in order to be successful

- collaboration between all different parties in society is crucial for success

- areas of extra importance to Sweden include the ageing population and the healthcare sector, environmental matters, youth, and integration.

It was a very good breakfast seminar and I hope this was just a start of a very interesting process!

Suggestions for solutions to societal problems

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CSR-i-praktiken.se (one of my favorite CSR-newsletters and web pages)  presents the results today from a discussion regarding solutions to societal problems held at Veckans Affärer’s Social Capatalist Day. Ten problems are highlighted in the summary presented at csr-i-praktiken.se. It is an interesting read. Very concrete suggestions for solutions to issues such as poverty, youth unemployment, labor discrimination of immigrants, corruption etc. are being presented. You may not agree to all suggested solutions, and some may not be applicable to your organization, but in general it is really thought-provoking material.

Read it and forward it to your friends!

Discussions with Patient Associations in Gävle

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I have today participated in a meeting jointly organized by LIF (the research based pharmaceutical industry in Sweden) and patient associations in Gävleborg (HSO Gävleborg) up in Gävle. A very good and interesting meeting where we discussed issues ranging from the work tasks for the pharmaceutical committee in Gävleborg, consequences of the pharmacy de-/re-regulation in Sweden, the Swedish drug insurance scheme, the product of the month (and other aspects of the generic reform), and pharmaceuticals and the environment. The latter topic was of course my contribution to the agenda of today.

The discussion was intense, and the issue of mandatory generic substitution at the pharmacy desk – to the “product of the month”, potentially from a company not participating in the Swedish drug insurance scheme, and/or a pharmaceutical product being anything but “green” – is no doubt a hot topic!

When will there be green pharmaceuticals...

The title of my presentation was “Pharmaceuticals and the Environment – when will we be able to choose green pharmaceuticals?” You know that I have great hopes for the coming year regarding the development of a pricing and reimbursement system allowing for green economic incentives to green pharmaceuticals. If you like to dig into some details on the topic of green pharmaceuticals and green incentives (including discussions on Sofia Wallström’s review, on the All Party Committee on Environmental Objectives, and on MPA’s proposal to add environmental requirements to GMP) just follow the links…

Thanks to LIF and HSO Gävleborg for arranging the meeting today. I really like it when the debate is intense! It was both interesting and fun!