ICCR investors call on pharma companies to collaborate in virus fight

Investor members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility are asking 14 pharmaceutical companies to collaborate on developing critical — and accessible — health-care technologies, including ways to diagnose, treat and vaccinate against COVID-19.

"The current pandemic offers … an opportunity to demonstrate congruence between company mission, strategy and operations to address the most devastating public health crisis in a century," ICCR members said in a letter sent April 1 to the CEOs of AbbVie, Amgen, Biogen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Gilead, GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Pfizer, Novartis, Roche, Sanofi and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. "We trust that you will take the right steps in collaboration with other stakeholders to ensure equitable access across populations and geographies, and to quickly and safely scale up diagnostic measures, treatments and when available, a vaccine."

Lauren Compere, managing director and director of shareholder engagement at ICCR member Boston Common Asset Management, said in a statement: "We have long engaged these companies, both individually and collectively via roundtables, around strategies to increase the access and affordability of lifesaving medicines. We know they have the capacity to do this; we also know they will accomplish more and faster if they work together."

ICCR investors want the pharmaceutical companies to govern with financial prudence and a commitment to affordable access for all. The letter claims U.S. taxpayers have spent nearly $700 million since 2002 on work instrumental in laying the groundwork for the COVID-19 response, but the U.S. government so far "has refused to provide assurance that any vaccines or treatments for COVID-19 would be affordable for all, which is clearly unacceptable. To that end, we expect companies to govern with the highest financial ethical responsibility," the letter said.

ICCR has more than 300 member organizations, including faith communities, asset managers, pension funds, unions and other socially responsible investors with more than $500 billion in combined assets.