Corporate responsibility and governance in pharmaceutical companies: responsible profits

Hello, everyone. Today, we're going to talk about the corporate responsibility and governance in pharmaceutical companies, and how companies are able to have responsible profits out of this relationship with the health sector. My name is Radi Haloub. I'm an associate professor and program leader for biotech and pharmaceutical management at UCL Global Business School for Health.

Today, I'm going to introduce you to the environmental social governance framework or what we call the ESG. This is an important subject, and it's a very hot topic that pharmaceutical companies are looking forward to apply all components of this framework in their operations. I will define the corporate governance and its impact on pharmaceutical business, and I will also introduce the ethics and corporate values in the decision-making process in these companies as well.

As we said earlier that I will introduce the ESG framework, and this slide will explain it. From the environmental perspective, the pharmaceutical companies should look at the climate change strategy. They have manufacturing facilities, and they have to consider the environment. Also, the biodiversity, the water efficiency, energy efficiency, and the carbon intensity. Of course, they have to look at the environmental management system. We live in an ecosystem, and we'd like to keep it and sustain it in good shape for the future generations. In addition to the environmental factors, we have the social factors, where equal opportunities are part of it, freedom of association, health and safety, human rights, consumer and products responsibility, and child labor. How the pharmaceutical companies interact within the environment's bigger picture, and how they impact climate change, and from the social perspective, how they interact and engage with humans, with human rights, for example, health and safety, and child labor. The third factor is mainly internal. It is about the governance in terms of the business ethics, and what are the frameworks that the pharmaceutical companies use, their compliance, the board independence, and executive compensation and shareholder democracy. These three main topics in the ESG framework are part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.