Where sustainable companies
meet responsible investors

Biopharmaceutical and biotech investors ended the summer of 2025 amid heightened uncertainty and significant financial market pressures.

The macroeconomic environment remains challenging, compounded by concerns over U.S. drug pricing policies, FDA changes, and global healthcare trends.

Despite headwinds, the sector shows opportunities for growth in areas like innovation, partnerships, and targeted strategic activity. 

Focal Points:

• 29% reduction in GHGs from own operations
• 9 prorammes providing medicines to people in need

Parameters:

• Data to: 31 Dec 2024
• Published: May 2025
• Materiality Matrix: Yes in Progress report
• ESG data centre: ESG/“Healthy Future” Progress Reports are provided as concise web pages and downloadable PDFs; IR also hosts Sustainability-Linked Bonds materials.

This insight looks at recent Health Care industry underperformance in the context of its performance in the post-Covid period. It explores the idea that US policy uncertainty may be an additional short-term drag on the industry not just in the US but globally as well.

• The global Health Care industry has steeply underperformed regional equity indices over the last two years and notably since the outcome of the US presidential elections in November 2024. The industry has faced several headwinds, but US healthcare policy uncertainty is the latest.
• Both US and other developed Health Care industries have high dependency on US revenues and have lagged their benchmarks, likely due to exposure to US policy uncertainty. The FTSE Emerging Health Care industry has been more protected, possibly because its revenues are less dependent directly on the US.
• From a sector standpoint, Pharma & Biotech and Medical Devices & Equipment derive a larger proportion of their revenues from the US market than Health Care Providers and are therefore more sensitive to US healthcare policy and trade barriers. This is reflected in these sectors’ relative performance since October 2024.
• The performance differences we have seen between several developed and emerging Health Care industries, and between Health Care sectors during October 2024-June 2025, combined with these regions and sectors’ revenue exposure to the US market, suggest that US healthcare policy uncertainty may have been an additional headwind for the industry during this period.

A new report, The Geopolitics of Biotech, from Lazard’s Geopolitical Advisory team examines critical business, policy, and regulatory forces reshaping the global biotechnology sector today.

From growing competition over innovation and capital to the decoupling of value chains, biotech is increasingly becoming a new frontier for policymaking and national security. 

With biotech at the forefront of global technological innovation, Lazard’s report offers detailed insights and actionable frameworks to help leaders position their organizations for success.

• Social issues are central for the Sector, in particular, Access to Healthcare
• ESG ratings vary on social, environmental impacts; Governance is a key concern
• A modest presence on ESG-labelled bond markets

Topic in focus

• Poor Risk Management, Litigation and Reputational Risks Are Systemic Issues
• Opioid CrisisPromptsStep-Change in Fines and Settlements
• Product Liability Litigation
• Kickbacks, Bribery and Pay-and-Delay Prevalent
• Sustainability-related regulations to watch

Analysts:

• Frank Zhang
• Desana Rose
• Daniela Sedlakova

Key Takeaways

• The weight-loss medication market could reach $150 billion, an increase from the previous estimate of $105 billion.
• The pace of adoption internationally is likely to be higher than in the U.S. over the next 10 years.
• The potential benefits of obesity drugs in the treatment of other diseases, including cardiovascular outcomes, renal disease, and sleep apnea, as well as investigational areas like cancer and Alzheimer’s, are some of the growth drivers for the market.
• Companies in sectors such as restaurants, beverage and grocery stores could suffer impacts from the expanded use of the drugs, while apparel could benefit. 

Claire Jervis, CFA looks at the healthcare sector and the reasons behind its challenging performance. She discusses the impact of Trump's policies on pharmaceutical companies and how our portfolio is positioned to navigate this difficult geopolitical environment.

Focal points:

• Sustainability highlights are here

Parameters:

• Publication date: March 2025
• Data to: 31/12/24
• Materiality assessment: Link
• Data centre: Link

Focal Points:

• Highlights available here

Parameters:

• Publication date: March 2025
• Data to: 31/12/25
• Materiality assessment: Not found
• Data centre: here

Note:

The Combined Management Report of Merck KGaA and the Merck Group for fiscal 2024 includes a combined Sustainability Statement. The Combined Sustainability Statement was prepared in order to meet the requirements set forth in Directive (EU) 2022/2464 of the European Parliament and of the Council dated December 14, 2022 (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, CSRD), in Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 and in sections 289b to 289e, 315b and 315c of the German Commercial Code (HGB) regarding a Combined Non-financial Statement. The Combined Sustainability Statement comprises the Group Sustainability Statement and the Non-financial Statement of the parent company. When preparing the Group Sustainability Statement, the first set of European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) was implemented in full.

Focal points

• "The Responsible Business Performance Report includes our performance across our six environmental, social and governance priority areas, and includes ESG data for current and previous years."
• "We've identified six areas of responsible business that matter most to us: access; global health and health security; environment; inclusion; ethical standards and product governance"

Parameters

• Publication date: March 2025
• Data to: 31/12/24
• Materiality assessment: Link (2022)
• Data centre: Not found

Megatrending 2025 delves into key themes across three major sections:

Society

• Hope in a multi-pandemic world
• Climate anxiety
• Why it's time to invest in biotech again
• AI: Powering a healthcare revolution

Environment

• Tracking the energy transition
• The challenge of flying green
• Iberdrola's path to sustainable energy
• The state of climate capital
• Solving climate change demands more than moonshots
• Costing biodiversity loss

Technology

• Technological leaps and bounds
• The investment implications of AI
• Chips with everything
• We, Robot
• Surveying forecasts of AI's economic effects
• Private equity comes to grips with AI

This year’s International Health Day motto, ‘Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures,’ aptly characterizes the current state of investing in the Healthy Living strategy. Despite a macro backdrop marked by heightened uncertainty, the Healthcare and Consumer Staples sectors are off to a ‘healthy’ start in 2025. More broadly, expanding fitness and nutrition trends, as well as the increasing use of AI to accelerate diagnosis and drug development, are creating a bright and hopeful future for the healthy living theme.

Summary

• Prioritization of health and fitness creates opportunities for consumer brands
• From MedTech to drugs, AI has the potential to supercharge healthcare innovation
• The Healthy Living strategy offers attractive exposure to multi-year health trends

Generation IM: Accelerating the Transformation of Healthcare Through AI-Powered Automation

"Healthcare in the United States is at a critical inflection point. It has the highest spend in the world (and rising), yet >70% of Americans feel failed by their health system[1] and about half of providers report burnout[2].

Across healthcare, providers want to be high-performing with personalized, efficient and value-oriented care, but information blind spots and administrative burdens make it incredibly difficult.

At Generation, we think that better visibility, coordination and automation can fundamentally address these challenges and unlock better patient outcomes.

Our recent investment in Innovaccer is a testament to this vision, as we believe its comprehensive suite of AI-powered solutions helps establish a new normal."

Analysts:

• Marina Petroleka
• Aurelia Britsch

Headlines

• Social Issues Central for the Sector, in Particular Access to Healthcare
• ESG Ratings Vary on Social, Environmental Impacts; Governance Key Concern
• A Modest Presence on ESG-Labelled Bond Markets

LeapFrog Investments is focused on delivering essential health, wealth and climate solutions to consumers across South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa. The firm has raised more than US$2.8bn from global institutional investors and is a major contributor to the growth of the impact investing industry, now worth more than US$1.57trn.

LeapFrog undertook major research to better understand the impact of its investments in healthcare by making use of well-known public healthcare metrics such as disability adjusted life years (DALYs), and social return on investment (SROI).

Conducted in partnership with PA Consulting, the research was focused on LeapFrog’s investment in Indian diagnostics chain Redcliffe Labs. Insights from the research can be used to evaluate future value-creation strategies and to measure the impact of interventions.

To what extent do large companies create and destroy value for society?

Long Term Value (Schramade & Schoenmaker) answer this question with the AEX Futureproof Index, an integrated value analysis of 23 AEX-listed companies that accounts for not only financial performance but also social and ecological impact.

Details on the AEX Futureproof Index project and team

Medtech innovation: dissecting inefficiencies in healthcare delivery

Technological advances including new procedural methods and robotics are improving surgery and enabling healthcare systems to treat more patients

Ageing populations, persistent cost inflation and practitioner shortages are combining to place healthcare systems under rising strain across developed markets. Transformational innovations in medical technology (medtech) are helping to address these challenges by improving patient safety, enabling quicker recoveries from surgery and delivering efficiencies for healthcare providers.

... read more on four aspects of innovation and patient impact ...

"Despite increased biotechnology financing activity, investor sentiment remains risk-averse, and biopharma indices are volatile. However, biopharmaceutical innovation is robust, with numerous companies reporting compelling data and strong M&A activity. Large pharma continues to focus on sustainable growth amid upcoming patent expirations and a challenging regulatory environment, including the drug provisions of the IRA, anti-trust issues, and the U.S. BIOSECURE Act.

Our 2024 Global Biopharmaceuticals Leaders Study, conducted in June and July, included 291 leaders from major biopharma companies, smaller firms, and investment groups. Participants comprised 238 C-level executives and 53 leading investors, with representation from large-cap, mid-cap, emerging biotechs, and private companies."

Merck & Co: Impact Report 2023-24

The 2024 Access to Medicine Index, which ranks 20 of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies on their efforts to improve access to essential medicines in in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), finds that the current pace of progress is falling short of growing healthcare needs in underserved countries. 

• Several pharmaceutical companies are prioritising low-income and least developed countries within their inclusive business models, with this trend rising. However, the implementation of these models is currently limited.
• Momentum in licensing activity has stalled, with only two new non-exclusive voluntary licensing (NEVL) agreements identified in the 2024 Index, compared with six in 2022, signalling a missed opportunity to improve local availability of innovative medicines.
• Only 43% of clinical trials take place in the 113 LMICs covered by the Index analysis, despite being home to 80% of the global population; since companies typically prioritise access planning in countries where they conduct trials, this leaves much of the world behind.
• Novartis is not only new to the top three spots of the overall Index ranking, but has risen to number one, putting GSK – the long-time leader – in second place.

Key findings include:

• The majority of companies disclose an ambition: Over two-thirds of companies (68) disclose a commitment to protect nature and two-thirds (46) of those have commitments that extend through company value chains.
• Few companies disclose robust nature-related assessments: Only one company discloses evidence of a comprehensive materiality assessment of nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks, or opportunities.
• A significant number of companies disclose nature targets and plans to implement them: 47 companies disclose targets to avoid or reduce their impact on nature and over three-quarters (37) of these companies also disclose strategies for achieving those goals.
• Companies disclose limited progress towards recognizing and protecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities: Only 31 companies meet at least one of the five benchmark metrics related to respecting and upholding the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, who play crucial roles in biodiversity conservation, restoration, and stewardship. No company meets all the criteria.

Links to results

• Key findings analysis here
• Full benchmark results here
• Individual company assessments here

Executive Summary

- Theme-driven investing involves identifying long-term sources of growth and the companies best positioned to capture the potential profits.
 
- The GIB AM Sustainable World Strategy has a specific Cardiovascular Health sub-theme, focused on investing in companies that are improving access to life-saving treatments and promoting global health equity. 
 
- A promising new treatment, Pulsed Field Ablation (PFA), has shown great potential in transforming outcomes of Atrial Fibrillation (AF), an increasingly widespread cardiovascular condition. 
 
- Forecasts suggest that the electrophysiology market will grow to $11 billion and that PFA’s share of  the market will expand from just over 5% to 60%-80%. (1)
 
- Boston Scientific (BSX NY), a core portfolio holding, produces one of just two FDA approved.
 
- PFA devices, and is therefore well positioned to take advantage of the increasing adoption of this technology.

Clothing Companies  

Smoking, vaping and convenience stores

Hospitals 

Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) 

Universal Design

• the demographic shift towards an aging population (1) and
• cater to the estimated 16% of the global population living with a significant disability (2).

Research RFP: Stewart Investors - Hospitals 

There is a significant shortage of hospitals and clinics in emerging markets and investment in the sector is critical for better human development outcomes. Historically we have been wary of the potential conflict that exists between for-profit hospitals/clinics and best healthcare outcomes. This has prevented us from investing in the sector. We would like to challenge this view and see if we can identify healthcare groups that are able to manage these risks well. 

Purpose: 

To identify leaders and laggards in terms of managing real and perceived conflicts between profit and best healthcare outcomes within the listed hospital sector.

Requirements: 

We would like this report to consider the following:

1. What are the key areas of conflict in for-profit hospital management?
2. How can minority investors assess this?
3. What do best and worst practices look like?
4. Who are the leaders and laggards?
5. How do companies manage the specific challenges of affordability when operating in very low-income communities?

Measuring the patient reach of medicine is key to understanding if essential drugs and healthcare products are reaching the people who need them most. With this first-of-its-kind report, the Access to Medicine Foundation examines how pharmaceutical companies are measuring and reporting patient reach, setting out seven recommendations that can help accelerate current efforts.
 
- The report assesses the patient reach approaches of the 20 pharmaceutical companies that will be assessed in the upcoming 2024 Access to Medicine Index.
- Encouragingly, 19 of the 20 companies report patient reach approaches. However, the product and country coverage of these approaches varies significantly and only a handful of approaches are comprehensive.
- To help guide companies, the report sets out clear, practical recommendations that companies can consider as they continue to develop and advance their patient reach approaches.

Report here

Halma's latest sustainability report covers key areas of their activities including:

• Case studies of healthy innovation for social impact
• Support for our people 
• Protecting our environment 
• TCFD statement 

Key points

Chronos Sustainability: Forever Chemicals

Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) are widely used in in a broad range of consumer and industrial applications, including in the aerospace and defence, automotive, aviation, textiles, construction, household products, and medical sectors.

The properties that make PFAS so useful –chemical inertness, temperature resistance, and oil, water and stain-repellence – have also led to concern about their adverse health and environmental impacts. PFAS are resistant to environmental degradation and may persist in the environment longer than any other human-made chemical. Exposure to PFAS from contaminated drinking water and food has been linked with human health impacts including endocrine disruption, increased cholesterol, higher risk of certain cancers, thyroid issues, reduced birth weights, lower response to vaccines and cardiovascular disease. PFAS exposure has also been shown to cause adverse effects in species including invertebrates, fish, amphibians, birds, reptiles, mammals, and plants.

Various mapping projects have confirmed widespread PFAS contamination in water, with many hotspots next to production and manufacturing facilities and on military sites and airports (where PFAS was – and still us – a common constituent of the firefighting foam (AFFF) used in training and firefighting exercises).

PFAS contamination is now drawing increasing regulatory attention. For example:

• The European Union (EU) is considering a proposal that would ban PFAS from all applications for which there are available substitutes.
• Bans on PFAS-containing firefighting foam are being introduced in the EU, New Zealand, and several US states.
• It is likely that PFAS-related drinking water standards will be tightened in Europe and North America, alongside greater regulation of wastewater discharges.

There is also significant litigation risk. The most significant cases have been in the US, notably 3M’s settlement with multiple public water systems for $10.3 billion over 13 years to address PFAS contamination, and Chemours, DuPont, and Corteva agreeing to a $1.2 billion fund to resolve PFAS-related drinking water claims for various US water systems.

However, recent lawsuits in countries such as Sweden and the Netherlands suggest that other countries might see increased legal activity in the coming years.

A new report, prepared by Chronos Sustainability, from the First Sentier MUFG Sustainable Investment Institute – PFAS: Forever Chemicals – Investor Briefing – explores the scale of PFAS pollution, its pathways into the environment, its impact on the environment and human health, regulatory and litigation responses and the risks and opportunities presented to PFAS producers, product manufacturers and waste management, water treatment and environmental testing service providers. 

The report also makes a series of recommendations for investor action on the issue focusing on portfolio risk assessment, company engagement, policy engagement and building partnerships with other investors and other stakeholders.

The report PFAS: Forever Chemicals – Investor Briefing can be downloaded here

Access to medicines latest research on Access to Generics is an important tool to help build a picture of areas where generics companies can continue improving and where investors can focus their engagement to drive better health and business outcomes, raising the bar for what affordable and accessible medicine means worldwide.

With over 800 million people affected worldwide, obesity is one of the most pressing global health challenges of our time. Associated with more than 200 chronic diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers, the prevalence of obesity has tripled since 1975 and continues to increase.

As forecasts suggest the global obese population to exceed one billion by 20301, widespread efforts have been made to effectively treat obese people, notably with the launch of GLP-1 based drugs.

Taken weekly, patients can achieve an average of 15% weight loss after one year, according to the drug’s approved FDA label, providing an alternative to surgical intervention. With their market success, a recent BNP Paribas Exane research report asks if GLP-1 based drugs could become crucial to managing obesity?

The research highlights the potential of GLP-1 based drugs beyond simply weight loss and examines the pharmaceutical industry’s advancements with this new generation of obesity drugs.

There is growing evidence to support the importance of GLP-1 based drugs in treating obesity-related health conditions, such as lowering cardiovascular risk and delaying chronic kidney disease. Consequently, analysts see significant opportunities for pharmaceutical companies to expand their presence in the development of weight-loss treatments.

Key Takeaways

• The healthcare sector is benefiting from rapid innovation, fuelled by a significant jump in COVID-led funding.
• The breakthroughs achieved during the pandemic are only just being realised, and further innovation will be fuelled by artificial intelligence (AI).
• Innovation is just one part of the investment puzzle; our Future Quality approach seeks to find companies that not only deliver solutions to the world’s many healthcare challenges but also offer sustainable growth and returns.

“Innovation is the future delivered”-Jorge Barba

As investors with a Future Quality ethos, our aim is to keep our portfolios ahead of the pack over the long term by seeing further and envisioning the investment opportunities of tomorrow. In short, we seek to invest in not only what is, but what will be.

In practical terms, this means monitoring the pulse of change, following the impacts of structural and demographic developments and staying alert to innovation. In recent times, the exciting and disruptive innovations surrounding AI have captured market attention. But if you look beyond the headlines, innovation is transforming other sectors by delivering new solutions to the world’s most pressing requirements. Healthcare is a sector undergoing profound change so why aren’t investors more excited about these innovative opportunities?

The Healthcare sector produces significant waste, and 15% of this waste is hazardous material that could be infectious, toxic, or radioactive. Despite international and national agency frameworks and regulations to drive proper medical waste management, not all this waste is disposed of responsibly. Poor waste management in the healthcare sector poses several health risks, including infections and water pollution, and can expose a healthcare company to legal or reputational risks.

Assessing a company’s waste management practices is crucial for investors to gauge adherence to global waste management regulations, which reduces potential legal and/or reputational risks. The ISS ESG Corporate Rating solution provides valuable insights for investors, enabling them to assess the effectiveness of waste management governance within healthcare organizations and make informed investment decisions with sustainability objectives.

First Sentier MUFG SI Inst.: State of Nature-Related Disclosures: Assessing TNFD alignment of nature-related disclosures by firms in high-risk sectors

Publication of the State of Nature-related Disclosures report continues the nature and biodiversity research series, which was initiated by the First Sentier MUFG Sustainable Investment Institute in December 2023 with the ‘Why Nature’ video highlighting the dependency of industry and the economy on natural capital. 

This report builds on the themes of the ‘Why Nature’ video to explore what is presently being disclosed, measured and assessed by companies, highlighting good practices and identifying gaps and challenges in order to provide investors with useful information that can be used in company engagement. The report analyses disclosure of 16 companies, two from each of the TNFD priority sectors, selected based on high environmental performance and/or ratings according to existing benchmarks or providers and geographic location by head office.

It has been a long-held belief that the US healthcare sector fares better than other sectors during economic downturns as it benefits from inelastic demand, contractual rates with health plans and governments, and is generally favoured by risk-averse market participants. Private credit, as an asset class that performs best when invested in steady industries, has therefore historically maintained a heavy focus in healthcare. But the past two years have proven more challenging than anticipated for many private credit managers with significant allocations to healthcare: problems have arisen from asset-specific challenges, reimbursement “surprises” and general industry dynamics. The long-term revenue stability that has been the hallmark of the healthcare sector has created short-term headaches as cash flows from stable revenue have been squeezed by wage inflation and rising interest rates.

As investors watch private credit managers’ performance, they can now see differentiation between the asset managers invested in healthcare private credit. This paper explores the long-term and short-term healthcare industry trends. Further, it will articulate what we believe to be the key attributes of successful healthcare investors in private credit. Lastly, as the industry’s short-term challenges subside, healthcare should resume offering a potentially unique opportunity for private credit investors: a historically long-term stable sector that has inelastic demand, favourable credit terms and yields, and an ability for investors to differentiate between managers.

Innovation is often revered when it comes to investing, including when it comes to the healthcare sector. We believe that offering innovative healthcare solutions is not enough, and in this white paper, we discuss why we believe patients – and what changes their lives for the better – will be key to companies achieving commercial success.

The world is facing various healthcare challenges. It is estimated that over half of the global population lacks access to essential health services, and rising chronic disease prevalence and ageing populations ensure that even high-income countries are not immune. 

Summary:

• We believe simply being innovative in healthcare is not enough, and focusing on companies that provide life-changing healthcare solutions realigns investing in healthcare by putting the core focus back on patients
• Life-changing treatments meaningfully advance the standard of care, increasing their value to key stakeholders and enhancing a company’s potential to earn higher returns if they can optimise patient access
• Ultimately, a patients-first approach isn’t just good from a human perspective, we believe it helps us identify companies that are more commercially compelling in order to maximise returns

With two-thirds of antibiotics being sold for use in animal agriculture, reducing the misuse and overuse of antibiotics within the livestock sector is an increasingly important area of focus for addressing AMR. FAIRR has facilitated two collaborative engagements focused on key sectors within the animal protein value chain that have the potential to reduce farm-level antibiotic use: Animal Pharmaceuticals (AP) and Quick Service Restaurants (QSR).  

The Animal Pharmaceutical engagement, now in its second year, examined seven of the largest publicly listed animal pharmaceutical companies. The report highlights the progress made since 2022 and key areas where disclosure could be improved.

The Restaurant Antibiotic engagement focuses on 12 of the largest North American QSR companies. The report analyses the ambition level, protein coverage, and geographical coverage of current policies and calls attention to gaps in disclosures and policies across six key animal proteins. 

For both engagements, the report highlights company-specific practices and emphasizes key areas where increased transparency is required for investors to understand how the selected companies are taking action to address the risk of AMR.   

Hurricanes, wildfires, heat waves and floods—all made worse by a warming climate—are impacting the global economy, damaging property and infrastructure, decreasing crop yields, affecting tourism and more. In the U.S. alone, the historic number of weather- and climate-related disasters in 2023 resulted in record-breaking costs of $92.9 billion. Yet beyond this visible devastation lies a quieter, and potentially costlier, threat: the impact on human health.  

The U.S. already incurs more than $820 billion each year for hospitalizations, injuries, medical treatments, mental health conditions and lost wages linked to air pollution and climate change. 

As extreme weather events become more intense and frequent, so too will the risks of respiratory illness, heat stroke, infectious disease through contaminated water and food sources, malnutrition and debris-related injuries—all of which will drive up health-related costs.

Morgan Stanley sees a critical need for investors to help mitigate the root causes of climate-related health risks, as well as investor appetite to do so. In a recent survey by Morgan Stanley’s Institute for Sustainable Investing, individual investors ranked climate action and health care as their top two sustainable investment themes globally. This signals a unique market opportunity to boost investments in preventive and sustainable solutions at the intersection of climate and health care. 

Three specific investment areas stand out:

1. nature-based solutions
2. infrastructure resilience
3. equitable access to care. 

'It used to seem simple. The early days of responsible investing were mainly characterized by avoidance of so-called sin stocks, such as tobacco. Since then, responsible investing has evolved into a much more sophisticated and robust understanding of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues affecting investment risks and opportunities. Every year seems to bring new insights, as well as new challenges for investors. 

At AllianceBernstein, our research agenda aims to bring rigor and clarity to responsible investing. Below are four themes we’re covering closely in 2024 through our research and partnerships. We think investors should pay close attention too.'

[These themes are]:

• 1. The interconnectedness of all things
• 2. Workforce disruption and transformation
• 3. Emerging markets in the spotlight
• 4. The health of humanity

"While our current research is heavily focused on the issues we’ve described above, we’re also still moving the needle on responsible investing classics such as physical climate risks, governance concerns, sustainable investment technology and more. We look forward to sharing our research with you throughout 2024."

Key Takeaways
- Long-term investment in Novo Nordisk, a Denmark-based pharmaceutical company whose research and development has pioneered a leading class of diabetes drugs, has provided actionable insights into the blockbuster global market for diabetes and obesity treatments.
- While Novo and Eli Lilly are making substantial investments to produce their leading diabetes and obesity treatments at scale, current production challenges could allow another biopharmaceutical player to gain market share.
- We view diabesity as a dynamic market that will create not only investment opportunities across the health care sector but also second derivative demand in other industries where international companies maintain leadership positions.

Merck's latest sustainability Report covers key areas of their activities, including:

• Business ethics - human rights, animal welfare, bioethics and corporate governance 
• Products - sustainable innovation & technology, health for all and products & packaging 
• Employees - corporate culture, diversity, equity and inclusion 
• Environment - climate action, resource efficiency 

Cardinal Health's latest report covers their activities including:

• Empowering our people 
• Creating value for our customers and communities 
• Operating sustainably and responsibility 
• Governance, ethics and compliance 
• Reporting indices

Goldman Sachs: Obesity drugs are among health breakthroughs forecast to boost GDP 

A wave of healthcare innovation may significantly boost the potential of the US economy, according to Goldman Sachs Research.

The emergence of weight-loss medications, AI-powered drug discovery, genomic and regenerative medicine techniques such as gene and cell therapy, and advances in diagnostics for the detection of diseases such as Alzheimer’s amount to a “remarkable pace of healthcare innovation that could significantly improve health outcomes,” Goldman Sachs Research economists Joseph Briggs and Devesh Kodnani write in the team’s report. These developments could enable people to live better and longer lives.

While a healthier population is far and away the most important outcome of healthcare innovation, breakthroughs can also add up to big gains for the economy. On their own, new anti-obesity drugs could raise US GDP levels by 0.4% or more in the coming years, according to the report. More broadly speaking, the latest healthcare breakthroughs could lift GDP by 1.3%, equivalent to about $360 billion per year in today’s dollars.

Interest in healthcare innovation has soared in recent years. Venture capital fundraising in US healthcare concerns has more than doubled since 2019. That level of interest has been matched by corporate leaders in the healthcare industry, as evidenced by the 60% surge in innovation-related keywords on company calls during the most recent earnings season. Our equity analysts project that investment across the entire healthcare sector could increase by 34% in 2024 to nearly $900 billion.