PATIENT ENGAGEMENT

Investment, Sustainability & Impact

Uniting for Healthcare Progress: Patients, Investors and Industry
Coming together to reshape healthcare with shared purpose!

Welcome to a transformative journey in healthcare, where the driving force is the collaboration of exceptional partners and stakeholders.

Introducing a new PFMD project that stands at the crossroads of patient engagement and sustainability, a meeting ground for patients, industry partners, as well as investment companies dedicated to creating positive societal impact.

Why this project? Why now?

PAST

Over the past decade, life science companies have taken significant strides in embracing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) matters. While commendable efforts have been made, there’s a deeper purpose to uncover.

PRESENT

There’s growing momentum that an effective Sustainability Strategy should include activities that are ‘material’ or important to a company’s purpose.

A Sustainability Strategy that aligns with an organization’s core purpose AND what matters to stakeholders (i.e., double materiality) can create greater value for patients, key stakeholders, and society.

This is getting the attention of the patient and investor community!

FUTURE

Our project is a humble response to this trend, weaving patient-centered perspectives into Sustainability Strategies for authentic and lasting impact.

This project can shape the next frontier of patient engagement by:
• integrating a patient-centered perspective into Sustainability Strategies
• demonstrating the value of patient engagement for patients, investors, industry, and society, and
• understanding which metrics are most meaningful to investors.

Why this project?

Well, in fact, it’s very simple. It’s because patient engagement:

Amplifies the achievement of Sustainability commitments and, companies who engage with patients can outperform

Allows Sustainability committments and metrics to move beyond risk mitigation

Informs priority setting, business decisions and value proposition

Strengthens the patient community’s leadership role in healthcare decision making

Drives better health outcomes for patients and with patients

Helps to identify unmet needs from the patient community which can inform investor and healthcare decision making

Voices of the Project

Months of exploration through direct engagement and through fruitful Patient Engagement Open Forum (PEOF) co-creation sessions, helped us understand a couple of key trends and perspectives, essential when talking about patient engagement and sustainability:

"Patients are a key pillar for Galapagos, with patient engagement now seen as a significant ingredient for future success. That is why we have dedicated one of our five long-term sustainability aspirations to patient engagement."

Marc Van Meldert

Head of Environment, Health & Safety and Sustainability Programme Manager at Galapagos

about Marc’s experience and priorities

“Sustainability is a company objective; it engages stakeholders, and it’s something we need to report on to see how we’re doing, [..] That opens conversations throughout the organization, including senior leadership.”

Heidi Müller

Head of Site and Patient Engagement at Galapagos

about Heidi’s experience and priorities

"To truly understand what unmet need looks like, who better to ask than patients?'"If patients find a product challenging to use, perhaps because it’s delivered intravenously, for example, that signal might not reach the manufacturer if they are too far removed from the patient community."

Joep Muijrers

General Partner at Gilde Healthcare

about Joep’s experience and priorities

“We want it to become normal to consult regularly with the patient community to co-develop solutions, Even before we began working within the framework of sustainability, we had invited the patient community to discuss how we can work together.”

Marina Sardone

Patient Advocacy Lead

about Marina’s experience and priorities

"We have looked at the Sustainable Development Goals for several years to help us assess how companies are contributing to good health and well-being... so we look at how companies are doing on the Access to Medicines Index"

Rogier Snijdewind

Director of Active Ownership and Responsible Investment at PGGM

about Rogier’s experience and priorities

Project Priorities, Opportunities & How to Get Involved

Generally we aim to pave a path toward seamlessly integrating patient engagement into Sustainability strategies, amplifying its significance as a catalyst for value creation.

In the short run we will do that by:

Cultivating a Collaborative Task Force: patient advocates, industry professionals specializing in Patient Engagement (PE) and Sustainability, as well as influential voices from the investment sector.

Want to be at the table?

Craft a set of pivotal metrics that empower the investment community to assess patient engagement initiatives, seamlessly intertwining them with organizational sustainability goals.

Want to help develop these metrics?

Shine a spotlight on health science companies championing patient-centered sustainability, and underscoring the immense value it holds for the investment community.

Does this describe you?

Enrich the dialogue around patient engagement’s broader impact, unearthing its influence on innovation, diversity, access, and overarching strategic decisions.

Have a view?

Let us know