Pfizer, GSK & CVS Health: This Week's Top Healthcare Stories

Inside Pfizer’s Report on Climate Change Linked Healthcare

Climate change is increasingly recognised as a risk to global health systems, supply chains and access to essential medicines. 

For a global biopharmaceutical company, the impacts of extreme weather, resource scarcity and rising emissions present both operational challenges and societal responsibilities. 

Pfizer recognises that climate action needs to be a strategic priority, embedding sustainability into its operations, financing and product development.

GSK CEO says US is the Top Market for Pharma Investments

Dame Emma Walmsley, GSK's Chief Executive, says the United States is the most attractive market for pharmaceutical investment, as the company pledges more than US$30bn to American expansion by 2030.

Speaking to the BBC, Dame Walmsley outlined the reality facing Britain's life sciences sector, despite successive UK governments positioning the country as a global hub for the industry.

"I do think we have to be realistic that for all investments the UK is competing with many other countries in the world who see this industry as strategic," she told the BBC.

“I am extremely pleased with our commitment to invest more than US$30bn [in the US] over the next five years, but once again it’s more than half of GSK’s global turnover today and it’s still a leading market in the world in terms of the launch of new drugs and vaccines.”

CVS Health: Integrating Sustainability into US Healthcare

Health solutions leader CVS Health continues to connect retail, pharmacy and insurance services to strengthen community health across the United States.

Its latest Healthy 2030 Impact Report reinforces CVS Health’s position as both a healthcare and retail powerhouse, focused on embedding sustainability, equity and resilience into its business model. The report highlights action around climate, packaging, and the health and well-being of its more than 300,000 colleagues.

“At CVS Health, we generate the greatest impact by connecting assets and expertise from across our enterprise to tackle America’s most pressing health challenges,” says Sheryl Burke, Chief Sustainability Officer, CVS Health.

“These challenges are complex, with health outcomes often impacted by a multitude of factors at the individual, societal and environmental levels. We believe solutions must take a holistic approach.

UNEP: Tackling Climate Change to Decrease Health Issue Load

A report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has highlighted the severe and accelerating toll that environmental degradation is taking on human health.

The Global Environment Outlook 7 (GEO 7) warns that the world is confronting multiple interconnected crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation and pollution.

These are pushing global systems toward irreversible tipping points with profound consequences for health and wellbeing.

The report states, "The excessive and unsustainable use of both finite and renewable natural resources... puts pressure on environmental systems," and that "these crises are interlinked and mutually reinforcing, pushing planetary systems towards uncharted territory where there is a growing likelihood that several tipping points may be irreversibly crossed.”

According to the report, environmental pollution is the world’s largest risk factor for disease and premature death, responsible for nine million human deaths annually, with more than 90% of these deaths occurring in low and middle-income countries.

Johnson & Johnson: Transforming Medicine with NLP

Known most widely for its dominance in medicine technology, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is also pioneering advancements in data science.

Natural language processing (NLP) is one of these areas, with the healthcare behemoth working to tackle the issue of unstructured data.

With most of the world’s healthcare data unstructured, including clinical notes and reports that hold vital information, NLP is helping J&J’s scientists to extract and analyse this data efficiently, fuelling innovation and accelerating the discovery of new drugs.