Climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss are already altering disease patterns, straining health systems, and increasing risks to communities worldwide. These environmental pressures are not future threats – they are shaping health outcomes today.

The pharmaceutical industry plays a distinctive role at this intersection of environment and health: through research and development, global manufacturing, and complex supply chains operating under stringent quality and safety standards, the sector helps prevent, detect, and treat diseases exacerbated by environmental change.

The industry is also committed to contributing to mitigation and prevention – reducing its own environmental footprint while channeling innovation toward the next generation of medicines and vaccines needed to address these growing health challenges.

The innovative pharmaceutical industry is tackling communicable and non-communicable diseases and conditions most affected directly or indirectly by climate change.

Companies develop new medicines, vaccines, and other therapies that can address health effects linked to climate change. In communities, they also help create and develop access programs, strengthen health care infrastructures, train local people, and increase awareness of how to prevent and control diseases and conditions.

Innovative pharmaceutical companies are researching and developing greener products and putting in place environmentally friendly production and distribution practices to deliver medical innovation to people more sustainably.

They are reducing carbon emissions across operations and value chains, investing in renewable electricity, and improving energy efficiency, reducing water use, and recycling.

Today, innovative pharmaceutical companies are working to be part of the solution to manage the impact of climate change on global public health now and in future.

IFPMA and our members are actively engaged across these processes as constructive, science-based partners – working to ensure that environmental and health objectives reinforce one another, that policies remain workable in practice, and that patients’ access to safe, effective, high-quality medicines and vaccines is protected, today and in the future.

The innovative pharmaceutical industry plays a central role in global health, and chemicals stewardship is part of that responsibility. Medicines cannot be researched, tested, manufactured, formulated, packaged, or distributed without chemicals – uses that already take place within highly regulated systems focused on patient safety, product quality, worker protection, and environmental controls.

Chemicals policy affecting the sector should preserve access to safe and effective medicines while enabling continuous improvement in safety and sustainability.

Plastic pollution is a shared global challenge, and the innovative pharmaceutical industry supports a science‑based and globally harmonized approach to addressing it.

Reducing unnecessary plastic use and accelerating the transition to a circular economy are essential objectives – and the health sector must be part of the solution. Globally aligned rules can help mobilize action across supply chains, scale innovation, and deliver environmental progress.

At the same time, plastics remain indispensable to the safe manufacture, packaging, and delivery of medicines and vaccines. They play a critical role at every stage of the pharmaceutical lifecycle and cannot yet be safely or reliably replaced at scale in many applications. Effective policy must therefore protect patient safety, medicine quality, and supply continuity.

The innovative pharmaceutical sector is already investing in solutions that reduce the environmental impact of plastics while maintaining the highest health standards. Companies are advancing circular design, improving packaging efficiency, strengthening waste management, and working with partners across the healthcare system to drive change.

Understanding and reducing the environmental footprint of medicines and vaccines is an important part of building sustainable, resilient health systems. As interest grows in product-level life cycle assessment (LCA), the innovative pharmaceutical industry supports approaches that deliver meaningful insights and enable continuous improvement—without fragmenting global healthcare delivery.

Harmonization is essential. Building on existing standards – rather than creating overlapping or inconsistent requirements – will help advance environmental objectives while safeguarding innovation, supply chain efficiency, and timely patient access to medicines and vaccines.

As governments and health systems increasingly consider sustainability criteria in healthcare procurement, particular care is needed to ensure that these approaches do not compromise access to medicines or the resilience of supply chains.

In healthcare, procurement decisions must always remain focused on delivering the best possible health outcomes, while balancing environmental, financial, and social objectives with the need to ensure reliable access to medicines and vaccines.

The life sciences sector operates within a highly regulated environment, with complex global supply chains and stringent quality and safety requirements. As a result, introducing environmental considerations into procurement decisions requires careful design. Approaches that are fragmented, rapidly evolving, or insufficiently aligned across jurisdictions risk creating operational complexity, disrupting supply chains, and limiting availability. Early dialogue with suppliers, alignment with existing regulatory frameworks, and implementation that reflects realworld supply chain constraints help ensure supply security and patient access.