Global Pharmaceutical Industry Invests Generously in Climate-Driven Health Solutions
To combat the devastating effects of climate change on human health, the pharmaceutical industry is being urged to invest as much as 5% of its annual research and development (R&D) budget in climate-driven health solutions. A recent report by the World Economic Forum and Oliver Wyman estimates that $65 billion should be allocated over five to eight years to focus on prevention, treatments, and technologies.
The investment has the potential to save around 6.5 million lives and avoid $5.8 trillion in economic losses. As climate-related events such as droughts, flooding, and rising sea levels intensify, global warming will lead to additional 14.5 million deaths over the next 25 years, resulting in a significant decrease in quality of life.
Moreover, by 2050, an estimated 1.2 billion climate refugees could arise, while food and water scarcity will become major health challenges for billions of people. The industry is also bracing itself for increased exposure to mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever, with global warming pushing disease-carrying populations into North America and Europe.
However, policymakers must step up to facilitate financing R&D efforts and strengthen the world's health systems and supply chains to prevent this impending crisis. To address climate change's health effects, it will be essential to collaborate in the same urgency as during the COVID-19 pandemic, with industry, governments, and public institutions working together.
Key elements of a comprehensive strategy include:
- Innovative funding mechanisms
- Harmonized global regulatory frameworks
- Rapid, focused investments and research into new vaccines and technologies
- Public-private partnerships to stimulate investment in climate-related health solutions
In order for the necessary investments to materialize, governments must guarantee pharmaceutical companies adequate incentives to develop and approve new climate-driven therapies.
While many of the initial impacts of climate change will be concentrated among less developed economies, global warming's effects can quickly spread. To combat this, efforts should focus on producing higher quality products at reduced costs across multiple regions.
To build advanced climate-health data platforms with artificial intelligence that integrate diverse data sets, industries and public sectors are also collaborating to enhance forecasting, response times and targeted interventions
Ultimately, policy-makers, industry leaders, and the general public must recognize the threat of global warming and the need for climate-driven health solutions in order to prompt any level of urgency and adequate response.
As a severe tipping point for climate risk approaches at 2030, less than five years exist in which to develop new therapies, strengthen the global healthcare system, and establish this necessary collaboration.