Seven CEOs of pharmaceutical companies, including GSK, AstraZeneca, Merck, Roche, Novo Nordisk, Samsung Biologics, and Sanofi, have launched a collaborative effort to meet short-term emission reduction goals and hasten the implementation of net zero health systems.
The Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) Health Systems Task Force, a public-private collaboration established at COP26, is bringing together the global health industry for the first time to cut greenhouse emissions.
To help with achieving emission targets, common standards
The Task Force will set uniform criteria to encourage providers to take action throughout the supply chain in order to reduce emissions throughout supply chains as well as clinical trials.
The Task Force’s member companies will use digital health solutions in the following ways:
- By 2023, they will have developed and committed to a uniform methodology for measuring emissions from Phase II and III clinical trials. Companies plan to start disclosing emissions for these tests in 2025.
- By no later than 2030, align new studies with businesses’ decarbonization plans and set emission goals for clinical trials.
- Make vendors for clinical trials and clinical research organisations swear to track and cut back on emissions. The groups will have a structure via digital tools to keep track of everything.
- Make sure that an assessment of how digital technologies can reduce emissions appears in more than 90% of trials that begin in 2025.
The Task Force and the Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health shall collaborate. Over 60 nations dedicated to climate security and low-carbon health systems will receive recommendations from the cooperation at the ministerial level.
Leaders from the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, academic institutions, and non-governmental organisations are also members of the SMI Health Systems Task Force.
According to the Director-General of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, failing to maintain the 1.5°C goal will have lasting repercussions on world health. The promises made show how effective public-private partnerships can be in bringing about positive, long-lasting change.
In whitepapers titled The Digital Solution for Sustainability in Clinical Research and Decarbonising Healthcare Supply Chains, the Task Force offers suggestions and doable steps.
