Issue: January / February 2022

In the spotlight because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and with growing expectations on all companies to identify and mitigate risks in their supply chain, the pharmaceutical sector is increasingly under pressure to show that it is doing its part to respect human rights. This is however a challenging endeavor as pharmaceutical corporations rely on longer and more complex supply chains than most industries. The Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative (PSCI) is committed to support our members to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Human Rights within their supply chains. With free and high-quality training materials, maturity models, and resources from the PSCI pharma companies and suppliers can identify and mitigate human rights risks and ultimately build responsible supply chains.

Brazil produces only 5% of the active pharmaceutical ingredients needed to the manufacture of medicines. Recent changes on regulations and the COVID-19 pandemic could open the Brazilian market to a new window of opportunity where continuous manufacturing can play an important role to secure pharmaceutical supply chain.

Economic, social and political stresses have been witnessed all over the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, drug shortages and inaccessibility is one of the many results of disruption of supply chains due to shutdown of manufacturing activity in China, as well as export restrictions and bans by other countries. Herein, a brief synopsis of the knock-on effect and pre- and post COVID-19 roadmaps and measures undertaken towards achieving local drug manufacture in Africa is provided.

The pharmaceutical industry is no stranger to environmental regulation, often controlling emissions of air and water pollutants in order to minimise damage to the local environment from toxic and pharmaceutically active chemicals. This article explores the steps the pharmaceutical industry is taking in reducing its carbon footprint in a wider push to counteract climate change, a phenomenon that affects population health and on a global scale. It is good that innovative solutions to greener medicines are emerging, but these must be balanced with a willingness to investment from payers and society as a whole. Furthermore, factors incentivising this change are analysed and key focus areas are proposed to make a significant progress towards meeting the Paris Agreement’s goals.