By Mohit Manrao, Head of US Oncology, AstraZeneca
The biggest challenges of our time – from access to healthcare to climate change, to fostering a culture of ethical, open, and inclusive society – requires everyone along the continuum of care to play a role in building a sustainable future. I recently sat down with Jamie Smyth at the Financial Times US Pharma and Biotech Summit to discuss our industry’s role in building a sustainable future for people, the planet and society.
For AstraZeneca, our sustainability strategy is focused on three priorities:
- Healthy People: Health equity is woven into everything we do. This includes embedding equity in our end-to-end operations – from diversity of our clinical trials to disease detection, diagnostics, and access to care. Alongside our advocacy partners and health care providers, we’re driving initiatives that identify the barriers for treatment access and optimal outcomes, deploying digital technology to minimize regional barriers, and supporting patients across the care continuum.
- Healthy Planet: The health of the planet is inextricably tied to the health of all people, and climate change will continue to have adverse impacts on human health, including increased risk of cancer, disruptions to cancer care, and higher mortality. That is why we are accelerating the delivery of net-zero healthcare, managing our environmental impact across all activities both at AstraZeneca and working with our suppliers, and investing in nature and biodiversity.
- Healthy Society: For us, trust is walking the walk. We mean it when we say we’re aiming to eliminate cancer as a cause of death. We approach treatment with the intent to transform survival and provide cures for cancer in every form. Beyond the medicine, we are prioritizing fostering a culture of ethical, open, and inclusive behavior in everything we do across our organization and our value chain.
These core pieces of sustainability are essential to our business practices because they are essential to health—the foundation of our business. If we are not putting the health of people at the forefront, we are not serving our business. If we are not solving for climate change or reducing our environmental impact, then we are having a negative impact on health outcomes. Our work cannot succeed if we do not earn the trust of those we serve.
You can watch our discussion below.
