Pfizers miljö- och ansvarsblogg

So, the year 2011 has soon come to an end…

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These days, in the end of the year, it is almost impossible to open a magazine or a newspaper without finding a list of the most important things that happened in 2011. My own list would look something like this (if I take it from a strictly professional perspective). It is worth mentioning that I have not put the “happenings” in any ranking order, these are just some things that come to my mind sitting here in front of the computer.

- The National Pharmaceutical Strategy was published and it did highlight some important issues around Pharmaceuticals and the Environment (e.g. the so called action items number 7.1 to 7.4). One very important action item in the Strategy is number 7.1: Sofia Wallström’s review on environmental considerations within the frame of the pricing and reimbursement system.

- In parallell with the work to develop the Strategy, LIF run a series of round-table discussions (and break-out work group sessions) to develop ideas around green criteria and green economic incentives. These discussions will both be important for action item number 7.1 in the Strategy (see above) and for 7.2: “Encourage voluntary control of emissions from pharmaceutical factories” (see for instance this link for more information)

- As a consequence of the discussions around the National Pharmaceutical Strategy and Sustainability, a work-group within LIF, consisting of among others members from the Environmental Committee, developed a strategy called “4 steps to a sustainable use of pharmaceuticals“.

- I started working part-time at LIF (the Swedish Association of the Research Based Pharmaceutical Industry). It is fun, interesting and challeging - exactly as I want it! I will be the project leader for action item 7.2 in the National Pharmaceutical Strategy, and also develop a CSR strategy or program for LIF.

- LIF has, in collaboration with all relevant stakeholders in the sector, planned for a campaign to be run during spring 2012 on the importance to bring back, to any pharmacy of your choice, any un-used medicines. This is regradless of where you have purchased them. More to come on this item during 2012.

- The All Party Committee on Environmental Objectives was initiated. One of the first priorities is the objective “A Non-toxic Environment”. See the blog post from the initial meeting of the work-group on Pharmaceuticals and the Environment, which is a prioritized issue in the review of the “Non-toxic Environment-objective”.

- One of the most discussed items within the field of pharmaceuticals and the environment was MPA’s report on how GMP can be amended with environmental requirements. An item that will be high on the agenda for several years to come, that’s for sure.

- When it comes to Public Procurement the most important thing that happened during 2011 was that County Councils finally started to follow-up their criteria, and company answers, on environmental and social responsibility issues. See this link for some more details.

- MistraPharma got funding for an additional 4 year period. If you would like to meet one of MistraPharma’s project managers “face-to-face” please have a look on the TEDx lecture given by Joakim Larsson on pharmaceutical substance releases from manufacturing.

- The end of the Dizza Tobak project. After three extremely fun and interesting years our collaboration with among others SAMBA and A Non Smoking Generation the project has come to an end. It will be interesting to see how we manage to build on the experiences we have gained and on the lessons we have learned when it comes to working with youth advocacy leaders and social media.

- The EU communication on CSR was published (see the communication, and also some of my comments on CSR and corporations, e.g. “an enterprise 2020 company“, and how a CSR program in a company can be communicated to colleagues). I will for sure come back to this issue several times during 2012 in my work on developing a CSR strategy/program for LIF.

- The political summit in Almedalen was as always stimulating as well as very interesting. See some of my reflections to seminars and meetings via this link.

- We saw a good participation in Earth Hour 2011, but few political achievements during the large UN Climate Conference in Durban. Cannot really say that I believe any real breakthrough to happen here during 2012…

- I received the award “Women’s Heart of the Year” (in Swedish: Årets Kvinnohjärta) from the Sollentuna Kvinnojour. I have to admit that I am very proud!

- My blogpost number 400 was written… It has become quite a few blog posts during these years… I am actually kind of proud of this as well! It presents a good opportunity for interactive communication, although I have to say that I would still welcome much more comments!

If you would like to read a summary of year 2010 and the ideas and expectations I had for 2011 roughly a year ago follow this link. As you see, some things hang around several years…

The final phase of the Dizza Tobak project…

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We are now in the final weeks of the Dizza Tobak project…

The project was initiated three years ago. It has been a collaboration between, among others, Pfizer Foundation, Pfizer AB, SAMBA, A Non Smoking Generation, and American Cancer Society (ACS). The project is a tobacco prevention initiative, where teenagers are creating e.g. videos to share the message that “tobacco is NOT cool” through their social media channels and through other communication channels. Their contributions have been uploaded on the Dizza Tobak web site. Have a look - there are so many good pieces there! If you want more details on the project please read any of my many blog posts on Dizza Tobak. You’ll find them in the “Dizza Tobak Category Archive“. 

Anders Lönegård, the project manager from SAMBA, is right now finalizing “Dizza Tobak - the Book” and “Dizza Tobak - the Movie” where stories, experiences, lessons learned etc will be told. I promise to come back to the topic as soon as there are more stuff to share. It has been a very successful project, and it is definitely worth sharing!

Use of Social Media in Health Care

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I participated in the conference “Sociala Medier i sjukvården - så funkar det!” (in English: “Use of Social Media in Health Care - this is how it works!”) today in Malmö. The conference was arranged by Dagens Medicin (a news magazine in the health care sector, roughly translated into “Today’s Medicine” in Englsih) and K-Street Advisors.

A very interesting, and hot, topic. I still find it somewhat funny that I get invited as a speaker to conferences on Social Media. I often declare that “I do not know anything about Social Media actually, I am just a very happy user of these new opportunities!”. But I take it as a strong sign of the lack of experience regarding social media in the health care sector, and the opportunities for great improvements, that I am being viewed as an expert… I have written about social media usage here at the blog previously, see for instance the blog post from Nov 24 last year.

So what did we talk about today? Theo Martins and Pelle Sjöqvist, both from K-Street Advisors, started in the morning as well as closed the conference in the afternoon talking about general aspects around the use of social media.

Theo Martins, K-Street Advisors

Pelle Sjöqvist, K-Street Advisors

Topics discussed were e.g. what social media is, how it works, how to get started, the difference between social media and other types of communication channels, and how social media could cause a crises or be used to manage a crisis. Pelle gave us also examples of usage of social media in the health care sector, or usages that affects us working in the sector, that he feels are worth exploring, e.g.

- Vårdguiden on Facebook

- Säkraresex.se by SLL (Stockholm County Council)

- Luskartan by Kronans Droghandel

- Flashback.org (where a lot of very strange, scary, and probably false discussions also about the health care sector can be found)

- Mayo Clinic

- Patients-like-me

I would of course also add More-than-medication and Can-You-Feel-My-Pain, but more on that later…

Presentations on use of social media ”from inside the health care sector” were given by

- Sara Natt och Dag who have met several patients telling about their diseases in the blogosphere in her profession as counselor. Very often these blogs are very open and honest. She has written several books about the phenomenon as such, and about the people she has met.

- Anna Jerdén, head of communication, Sörmland County Coucil, on their use of social media “for defence purposes” during a media crisis.

- Jens Larsson, General Counsel at the Uppsala County Council, about the legal issues around social media use, especially if you are a governmental official. My conclusion from his presentation would be that it is still a tricky area, still a lot of unanswered questions. But a guiding principle is of course that “use your common sense”. All the old privacy rules etc do of course apply also in these new communication channels!

- Mats Reimer, pediatrician from Mölnlycke, shared his experiences from being one of our most famous “blog doctors” in Sweden. Follow his blog on the webpage of Dagens Medicin.

Mats Reimer, pediatrician

- And then finally me talking about this blog (Ansvarsblogg.se), about the Dizza Tobak platform, and the Can-You-Feel-My-Pain initiative.

I talk about social media

As you probably understand I do not think social media is something “completely new and different”. To me it is just a new communication tool. Much faster and more powerful than anything we have seen before, but still something where a lot of our old rules and strategies still apply. You have to know what you want to do, you have to understand your target group, you need to carefully plan your launch of a new site or platform, you have to do a risk assessment before launch etc. etc. Just remember that everything goes faster and that you will not have full control of how things develop and evolve on the Internet… But the opportunities are so great that those risks are worth taking.

I used Dizza Tobak as an example of the possibilities to share information and experiences, or in this case uploaded anti-tobacco contributions, with the entire world in a rapid and almost for free. If you have followed me on the blog previously you know that Dizza Tobak is a project that we run together with SAMBA and A Non Smoking Generation with the purpose of eliminating tobacco usage. Some of my favourite contributions this year are:

- Love this way to die?

- Svart sot och död

- Kriget mot tobak

and of course still the Flash Mob at the Central Station last year protesting to the fact that 18 people die from tobacco each and every day in Sweden…

I also presented the Can-You-Feel-My-Pain (CYFMP) initiative where we in collaboration with, among others, Patient Advocacy Groups from all over Europe have utilized a number of different social media platforms in order to raise public awareness of chronic pain. Take part of the initiative through the following links:

- CYFMP on Facebook

- CYFMP on Twitter

- CYFMP on Flickr

- CYFMP on Twibbon

A good conference with interesting discussions on a hot topic. I am sure the use of social media in health care (and elsewhere of course) will explode for the simple reason that the opportunities are so great. But just remember that there are risks of course - but in my opinion those risks are definitely manageable.

Opportunities...

Risks...

Back from summer vacation 2011…

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So, after four weeks of vacation I arrived back to the office today. Vacation has been very good - one of the top moments for me this year was when I played my violin on top of Åreskutan.

Playing the violin at Åreskutan

So what to expect work-wise this autumn. Well, of course there will be a lot of discussions around the proposal from Swedish MPA to include environmental requirements in GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice), and the alternative or complementary approach to implement green incentives into the pricing and re-imbursement system in order to reward green and sustainable initiatives and products. Read more about these ideas, and follow the links to further information, in my blog post from July 19. You can also listen to the video-blog I recorded during the political summit in Almedalen in July where I discuss the issues around a “green pharmaceutical market”. If you are interested in general what’s going on in relation to social and environmental sustainability in Sweden I recommend you to screen through my updates from the Almedalen week via these links:

- July 3 in Almedalen

- July 4 in Almedalen

- July 5 in Almedalen

- July 6 in Almedalen

- July 7 and 8 in Almedalen

In addition to the discussions on GMP and green economic incentives with MPA, TLV (The Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefits Agency, responsible for the pricing and re-imbursement system) and other stakeholders there will also be further discussions with the All-Party Committee on Environmental Objectives regarding the Swedish national environmental goal on a Non-Toxic Environment. To read more about that, see e.g. my blog post from June 15.

I am also convinced that we will participate in several discussions with a wide range of stakeholders regarding social innovation and social entrepreneurship. If you have followed me on the blog post during recent years you know that I strongly believe that we will see changes in the pharmaceutical market. There will be more interest in services, and hence not only “pills and medication”, and more and more on prevention and creation of wellness. Read more in my blog post from April 8, and via the link more-than-medication.

And last but not least there will of course be a lot of work on Dizza Tobak.

Dizza Tobak is a three year project, run by SAMBA in collaboration with among others A Non Smoking Generation, and sponsored by Pfizer Foundation and Pfizer AB. We are now entering into the final months of the project (ending Dec 2011) and there will be a lot of work summarizing the project, doing lessons learned sessions, and securing a future of the successful parts of the project together with A Non Smoking Generation. Please view some of the up-loaded contributions from this spring via this link. It is fun, educating, and very often really impressing!

Wednesday July 6, 2011, in Almedalen

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If you have read my blogpost from yesterday you know that I recorded a video blog yesterday.

Recording the video blog

Please have a look on the video (best of course if you understand Swedish…). It is a good introduction to the seminar called “Miljömärkta tabletter” (in English roughly “Green pharmaceuticals”) which will be the first one I make comments upon in today’s report from the political summit in Almedalen.

The seminar on green pharmaceuticals was arranged by Kronans Droghandel, and they had invited a panel consisting of Anders Finnson from the Swedish Water and Wastewater Association, myself representing the pharmaceutical industry, Anders Andersson from the government (politician representing the Christian Democrats on issues on health and social affairs), Louise Ungert from the consumer association in Stockholm, and Cecilia Marlow from Kronans Droghandel.

The panel debates

A background was given to environmental matters and pharmaceuticals. Focus of course on both potential effects from exctreted susbtances from patients and on environmental effects from releases of active pharmaceutical substances from manufacturing. For more information on the latter read my blog post from August 16 last year. The panel all agreed upon the necessity for actions to be taken. We discussed both regulatory initiatives and “market driven” solutions. And as I already mentioned in the end of my blog post from yesterday, my key message was a request that politicians should make adjustments in the pricing and re-imbursement system to allow for green incentives. To read more about green incentives, follow this link.

Friends of the Earth

After the morning seminar I visited Friends of the Earth and their discussion about Greenwashing and the presentation of the Swedish Greenwash Award 2011. Before the announcement of the Greenwash award, we received a good lecture on Greenwashing, based on a report issued by Friends of the Earth.

A greenwash report

The report was discussed already last year in Almedalen and you can read my comments from last year via this link (after scrolling down…). Friends of the Earth then presented the nominees for the award:

- IKEA

- Vattenfall

- Preem

- Mitsubishi

- Maud Olofsson (Swedish minister for Enterprise and Energy)

The “winner” of the Swedish Greenwash award 2011 was Maud Olofsson. Read more about the award here. I am looking forward to more discussions next year. It would add great value if Friends of the Earth invited industry and politicians and stakeholders to a more open debate and not only a “one-way communication”…

Next seminar was on the issue of young girls smoking and drinking, and how the tobacco and liquor industries use “dirty tricks” to introduce young girls to cigaretts, moist snuff and spirits. The seminar was arranged by KSAN, a network of women’s organizations collaborating on alcohol and narcotic issues.

At the KSAN seminar

Ruth Arvidsson from KSAN gave several examples of “dirty tricks” in marketing of spirits and tobacco products. Examples included product placements, utilization of celebrities, and products directly aimed for young girls (e.g. pink cigarettes and snuff with “candy” taste). Ruth stressed the need for positive role models for teenagers, and also inititiatives that would make it “cool not to smoke and drink”. In relation to that I would like to mention the Dizza Tobak project that I have written about here at the blog several times.

Dizza Tobak is a youth tobacco prevetion project ran by SAMBA in collaboration with A Non Smoking Generation, sponsored by Pfizer Foundation and Pfizer AB. The need for action is obvious if you look on results in the “CAN report on pupils drug habits 2010″:

-28% of the girls and 21% of the boys in class 9 (age 15) smoke

-43% of the girls and 36% of the boys in high-school’s second year (age 17) smoke

The idea in Dizza Tobak is that the kids know that smoking is dangerous, and that the kids do not stop smoking when adults communicate with them on the issue. It is much more effective if the information comes from other kids, and if the information is in a “cool” formate and on social media platforms where “the kids hang around”. See one of my favourite uploaded Dizza Tobak contributions from 2011 via this link. The Dizza Tobak platform on the Internet has received a lot of interest from several parties and the project manager Anders Lönegård gave a brief introduction to the project and the ideas at the social media seminar “Engagemang i digitala medier” arranged by TechSoup and Microsoft here in Almedalen yesterday.

I plan to talk briefly about Dizza Tobak tomorrow at 11.30 at the University (Cramérgatan 3, B24) when I participate on the panel in CSR Sweden’s seminar on Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives in industry: “CSR -behövs piska eller morot?”. To me Dizza Tobak is a very good example of a CSR project where “everybody wins”.

At the KPA Pension seminar

My final seminar for today was arranged by KPA Pension. Sofia Hagman, CSR manager at KPA Pension, discussed ethical pension investments. Since roughly 33% of all money on the global stock markets are pension money, their investments do really matter… Sofia gave a good presentation, but to be honest I have to admit that the best part of the seminar was the improvisation theater played by the Stockholm Improvisation Theater Group. A lot of fun, and a smart way for KPA Pension to make their seminar extra worth remembering!

Then as always their was a party leader lecture in Almedalen. Today it was Jan Björklund from the Liberals. Read about the lecture via this link.

Tomorrow I once again have a tight schedule. My most important seminar is of course CSR Sweden’s seminar at 11.30 at the University (Cramérgatan 3, B24) called “CSR - behövs piska eller morot?” where I sit on the panel. But there are quite a few other semianrs as well:

July 7

0800-0945 ”Energieffektivisering som smittar – är det rätt att använda skolan som samhällspåverkare?”, Sustainable Innovation, M/S Teaterskeppet, Visby Hamn
0830-0930 ”CSR – Samhällsansvar med flera vinnare”, CSR Sweden och Fryshuset, Högskolan, Cramérgatan 3 (B24)
0900-0945 ”Klimatanpassning för ett säkrare samhälle”, FOI, Gotlands Museum, Strandgatan 14
1000-1130 ”Vad är orsaken till ökad ohälsa bland barn?”, Apoteket AB, Wisby Strand Congress och Event
1100-1200 ”Det lokala samhällsentreprenörskapet – effekten av lokala politiska initiativ?”, Mötesplats för social innovation och samhällsentreprenörskap, Hamnplan
1130-1245 ”CSR – behövs piska eller morot?”, CSR Sweden, Högskolan, Cramérgatan 3 (B24)
1100-1145 ”Vattenpiperökning, en oroande trend bland ungdomar”, Smart Ungdom och Folkrörelser mot Droger, Blå trädgård (150 m väster om Almedalsscenen)
1200-1430 ”Vilken näringspolitik behövs för att göra Sverige klimatneutralt 2050?”, Svensk Energi och Teknikföretagen, Clematis, Strandgatan 20
1300-1445 ”Miljön förstörs – förstår ekonomerna det?”, FORES, Krukmakarens hus, Mellangatan 21 (Oscarssalen)
1400-1530 ”Regeringens läkemedelsstrategi – i väntan på kejsarens nya kläder?”, Pfizer, Clarion Hotel Wisby, Vinterträdgården, Strandgatan 6
1500-1600 ”Social innovation och CSR”, Mötesplats för social innovation och samhällsentreprenörskap, Hamnplan
1700-1800 ”Man vill bli älskad – i brist därpå avskydd och föraktad”, Fryshuset och Natur & Kultur, Länsteatern, Bredgatan
1700-1800 ”Vilken plats har miljöfrågorna i politiken?”, Swedish Water House, Gotlands Museum, Strandgatan 14
2000 Stora Miljöfesten, Gotlands Museum, Strandgatan 14