NEW YORK, NY, MONDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2024 – Shareholders in leading pharma companies today announced that they had filed a series of proposals for 2024 proxies calling for a formal human rights due diligence (HRDD) process to determine whether the companies were doing everything they could to increase the access and affordability of their medicines.
Adequate health care and the right to security during sickness are guaranteed under Article 25 of the UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights; however, across the globe, these rights are regularly violated and, for those least able to afford it, access to affordable health care often remains frustratingly out of reach, particularly for people living in low- and middle-income countries. In the U.S., the cost of branded medicines outpaces other countries in many cases by a factor of three1. As a result, one in four adults in the U.S. today will not fill a prescription, will cut pills in half, or skip doses because of cost.
Pharma companies have long been criticized by legislators, public health advocates, and patients for prioritizing profits over patient health through a range of strategies designed to keep drug prices high. Investors have been engaging the sector for decades on questions related to access and affordability, arguing that failure to ensure that advancements in life-saving medicine and technologies are available, accessible, and affordable to all people presents significant risks to companies and their stakeholders.
The proposals were filed at AbbVie ($ABBV), Eli Lilly ($LLY), Gilead ($GILD), Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ), Merck ($MRK), and Moderna ($MRNA).
Said Amy Carr of Friends Fiduciary Corporation, which filed a proposal calling for a Human Rights Impact Assessment at AbbVie, “AbbVie has adopted a commitment to human rights,” which includes respecting human rights in clinical trials and supporting “access to quality and affordable medicines.2 However, some of AbbVie’s actions appear to undermine its commitment to promoting access to medicines.”
A case brought by a Dutch organization claiming that AbbVie’s overcharging the Dutch healthcare system for Humira violated the human right to health was recently permitted to proceed by a Dutch court.3 In the U.S., AbbVie has been accused of using a variety of anticompetitive practices to raise prices for two lucrative drugs.4
Continued Carr, “Comprehensive HRDD that includes an impact assessment would enable AbbVie to identify and remedy the human rights impacts of its operations, such as harmful pricing practices and shortcomings in access programs.”
Gilead has also been criticized for its strategies to boost profitability with clear consequences for patient health. For example, in some cases, Gilead failed to enter licenses for HIV/AIDS medications into the Medicines Patent Pool for generics manufacturing that would dramatically increase their access and affordability in lower- and middle-income countries. In another case, Gilead was accused of delaying seeking approval for a safer form of tenofovir out of a desire to fully exploit the exclusivity period for an already FDA-approved but much more toxic form of the drug known to cause kidney and bone damage that killed patients.5
“There is a fundamental misalignment with Gilead’s stated mission of “Building a Healthier World for All People” and some of its rather cynical and exploitative pricing practices,” said Lydia Kuykendal of Mercy Investment Services, which filed a proposal calling for a Human Rights Policy at Gilead. “We believe Gilead needs to embark on a formal process of human rights due diligence to understand how these business practices may impact patients’ human right to health so it can better mitigate those risks.”
“The escalating price and reduced access to legacy medicines like insulin, on which millions of Americans are dependent, has been an ongoing symbol of the failures of the U.S. healthcare system,” said Cathy Rowan of Trinity Health, which filed a proposal requesting a Human Rights Impact Assessment at Eli Lilly. “Insulin has been on the World Health Organization’s essential medicines list since 1977. Recently, an ‘increasing lack of supply of critical insulin products [has] severely affect[ed] diabetes patients and healthcare providers.’ There is concern that insulin makers like Lilly are ‘turning their focus and resources away from insulin and toward the GLP-1s,’ like Zepbound, which are more profitable but cannot substitute for the insulin required by some diabetics.”
The proposals are expected to be voted on by shareholders at the annual meetings of the pharma companies this spring.
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- https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/comparing-prescription-drugs
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︎ - https://www.abbvie.com/content/dam/abbvie-com2/pdfs/about/our-commitment-to-human-rights.pdf, at 2
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︎ - https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01545-9/fulltext
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︎ - https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/pharmaceutical-company-abbvie-inflated-prices-two-major-drugs-house-oversight-n1267591; https://www.i-mak.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/i-mak.humira.report.3.final-REVISED-2020-10-06.pdf
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︎ - https://www.statnews.com/2024/08/16/gilead-suit-patent-hopping-hiv-treatment/
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︎The post Investors Call on Pharma Companies to Conduct Human Rights Due Diligence to Ensure Access to Affordable Medicines first appeared on Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility.