Sustainability
At Shionogi, we recognize that our responsibilities to the communities where we live and work extend beyond supplying medications to help protect the health and wellbeing of the patients we serve.
We are a proud signatory of the United Nations Global Compact, solidifying our commitment to sustainably and ethically grow our business while taking action to advance the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
We are focused on the ways in which Shionogi is creating value for society through our products and services. SDGs 3 (Good Health and Well-Being) and 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) are at the heart of our mission to treat unmet medical needs in infectious diseases and other areas of high medical need. We are also considering how Shionogi can create a more sustainable society by being a good employer, partner and steward of the environment, in accordance with SDGs 8, 12 and 17.
Here are a few of the many ways we are taking action to achieve these goals.
Improving Access to Healthcare
In 2022 we announced landmark license and collaboration agreements with Global Antimicrobial Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI). These agreements were created to transform the landscape of access to antibiotics in many low-income countries, most lower middle- and upper middle-income countries, and select high-income countries (135 countries total, almost 70% of countries worldwide).
We also recently completed a licensing agreement with the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) to increase access to our investigational oral antiviral for COVID-19 in low- and middle-income countries, pending local regulatory authorizations or approvals. Under the terms of the license agreement, qualified generic manufacturers that are granted sublicences by MPP will be able to manufacture and supply ensitrelvir to 117 countries.
Protecting the Environment: Climate Change
We are actively working to reduce the burden of our business on the environment. We set a goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and are engaging with suppliers to reduce CO2 emissions across our entire supply chain. We switched to renewable energy sources at our headquarters in Japan and other research areas, with plans for implementation at additional sites.
Shionogi is a member of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and we joined the TCFD Consortium with other Japanese companies and financial institutions supporting recommendations for enhancing climate- and sustainability-related disclosures.
Our actions on climate change and water security earned recognition on CDP’s 2022 Climate and Water A Lists.
Protecting the Environment: AMR
As a leader in infectious disease, we recognize antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as a major global health threat requiring urgent action.
Shionogi is a founding member of the AMR Industry Alliance, the largest private-sector coalition working on the issue. We supported the creation of the AMR Action Fund, a $1 billion fund dedicated to bringing new and more environmentally friendly antibiotics to the market by 2030.
We signed the 2016 Davos Declaration calling for collective action to create a sustainable and predictable market for antibiotics and the AMR Industry Alliance’s Industry Road Map for Progress on Combatting Antimicrobial Resistance, an action plan guiding appropriate manufacturing and use.
For our cumulative efforts, we received the top score in the manufacturing industry on the Antimicrobial Resistance Benchmark 2021, a report from the Netherlands-based Access to Medicine Foundation that analyzes and evaluates AMR initiatives.
Respecting Human Rights
We respect the human rights of all stakeholders, in line with the Shionogi Group EHS Code of Conduct and Shionogi Group Human Rights Policy and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
To that end, we conducted Human Rights Impact Assessments on labor conditions in manufacturing regions that produce raw and basic materials, as well as conditions for foreign workers. We will continue to further assess human rights risks in the supply chain.
We are educating Shionogi executives and employees about potential human rights violations through e-learning programs. To date, 90% of employees globally have participated. We will continue to provide the most current information on business and human rights to our employees.