Bayer is foremostly a pharmaceuticals company, we want to continue to lead the ways in drug technology with the use of AI to speed up drug development, to help rid the world of disease.
Innovative medicine initiative (IMI) highlighted that every 1 kg of active ingredient can take 100 kg of materials to produce, this is not only hugely expensive but has huge environmental impact. A large percentage (up to 90%) of the active ingredients in pharmaceutical production are excreted unchanged. Therefore, it is imperative to think of the impact of these as they enter the environment in water and soil. Due to the high pressures in processing this further increases how much enters the system.
Bayer is a large and powerful corporation. The buying power from strong supplier relationships and position in the industry should be used to maximize positive environmental impact. Opportunities to streamline efficiency whilst minimising waste and reducing consumption should be explored. Bayer can influence its producers and choose where to source its raw materials. This alone can have a significant impact. Evaluating the supplier chain and identifying areas to support local economies and minimise transportation and its impact must be sought. Research must also be conducted to maximise production whilst producing the least carbon output, using the least water and producing as little waste as possible, inline with the UN sustainability goals. This must be a comprehensive piece of research. Identifying key areas to invest in will be paramount to its success in implementation. All areas must be evaluated; processing, transportation, raw ingredients, waste etc.
Example successful change: Structurally modifying the compound of Propanolol, resulted in a derivative that decomposes far more easily.
In Pharmaceuticals, “a number of hormones are synthesized based on sterols that result during the production of plant oils from soybeans”. Bayer supports certified sustainable production of these raw materials and is a member of the “Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil” (RSPO) and “Round Table Responsible Soy” (RTRS). There is also a scheme where Bayer invest in “credits” which provide financial recuperation for accredited farmers withholding to high sustainable standards to balance higher financial implications for them farming in this way.
Other key raw materials:
Reducing the amount of water consumed, will decrease material costs, after initial investment and there may be some ongoing maintenance costs. Ensuring water security can also create better relationships with communities and increase company reputation. The risks of increased contaminant concentrations into water systems must be monitored. Installing water saving devices into existing systems or changing water cooling systems from water to air based systems can decrease water consumption. This must be balanced with increased energy consumption from these systems. Many systems currently uses a 2 x 100% redundancy system due to the high quality and consistent water needed. These can be replaced by technology such as the Siemen’s S3® system, which does not use the same recirculating water design that consumes more water, electricity and produces more waste water.
Most of the supply of Diosgenin comes from Yams in China. We must adopt sustainable agricultural (see Crops and agriculture) practices to farm these wild yams. The other problem is within extraction and preparation of the Diosgenin. This process uses sulphuric acid in an acid hydrolysis process which produces acid wastewater. The other part of the extraction uses petroleum ether (Links to reduction of fossil fuels).
Benefits of green process chemistry methods: increased shareholder value, avoidance of greenhouse gas emission taxes and a competitive advantage driven by cost efficiency through decreasing mass and energy intensity.
Greener processing may require radical changes to processing and equipment. It may not always be possible to change existing systems easily but we commit to embracing greener technologies as we upgrade equipment and create new facilities.
Raymond et al found that between 80 and 90% of the total mass used in the production of an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) may be attributed to solvent use. Manufacture of virgin solvent and solvent waste management contribute significantly more life cycle emissions than comparable processes for commodity chemicals, with the majority of this waste consisting of CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions. Solvent choice therefore needs to be evaluated in a new research analysis project on solvent use at Bayer. There are different categories of solvent but using a ‘best in class’ approach could allow us to better focus attention at improving environmental impact process, whilst not significantly changing output. The elimination of multiple solvents has a profound effect in managing those solvents throughout their life cycle and the cost of managing fewer solvents is also a significant consideration. In some cases solvents may be replaced by alternatives i.e. water, supercritical fluids and ionic liquids. As technology advances, these choices will also increase. Being aware of what are using in a solvent evaluation, will help us recognise these opportunities to embrace chemical innovation.
Change energy supplier: Although Bayer’s overall energy consumption is decreasing year-on-year, 88% of it is still produced through natural gas and coal. Bayer is a German-based company, in a country with a drive towards green energy. Much more of the energy used should be coming from renewable sources. This can be supplemented by traditional energy sources to ensure consistency and safety in production. This should depend on the National Electricity mix but where possible there should be a decrease in fossil fuel usage over the next 10 year, inline with International and Government Targets and the national availability. By using renewable sources, we can drive demand and help accelerate the culture and ability to access renewable energy.
Reduce energy consumption: In the UK, Siemens and Pilkington joined in a venture to decrease energy production including schemes such as installing new drive technology and intelligent lighting solutions. Bayer strives to follow these examples to further decrease their energy consumption. An internal report should be produced, commenting on:
A full investigation by and collaboration with an energy consultancy such as Green Energy Consultants, UK-based, could add to this piece of work.
It is our responsibility, as a pharmaceutical company to lead the way in changing practice, despite the current lack of industry incentives. We would like to create a round table (quarterly) and regular summits (biannually) for the leading companies to collaborate to reduce the industry impact by holding us accountable to each other and producing a forum to share best practice. This will help industry reputation and allow the development of better relationships with external bodies including governments. This could be used to develop industry incentives to benefit all stakeholders i.e. extension on Patents for reaching certain standards for sustainable manufacturing and increased efforts to reduce environmental impact by investing in greener alternatives.
90% of animal studies undertaken are legally required and are important to verify the safety and effectiveness of our products.
Our framework for responsible animal testing is as follows:
“We work hard to keep the animals in our care safe, healthy, and comfortable. Our responsibility already begins with the origin of our animals. We work very closely with authorized breeders. Experts ensure the appropriate animal husbandry including measures like secluded areas and toys.”
Whilst we have been proud of our animal testing policies moving forward into the next decade we want to lead our industry in reducing animal testing.
Several areas we are particularly keen to pursue are:
Such a move away from animal testing involving computer simulations and tissue models will aid our triple bottom line as such tests are cheaper, less wasteful and energy intensive and more aligned to the societal value of caring for animals.
Bayer currently ranks 16th on the access to medicine index foundation. GSK ranks number one, as it “continues to outpace peers by building on a strong foundation of strategies that are applied to both R&D projects and products on the market”. During the next 10 years, given our proposed initiatives, we expect to increase ranking to a top 5 position.
Bayer’s main current initiatives involve improving access to contraceptives in developing countries and helping eliminate 11 NTDs by 2020; in line with the Sustainability Development Goals.
We support several world health initiatives. We have a successful programme for African Sleeping Sickness and a clinical study to find a better dose for treating children with Chagas disease. We are also proud that for the past 1 years we have been sharing our knowledge in this field and provide WHO free of charge with two active substances against Chagas disease and African sleeping sickness.
Bayer is committed to the principles of sustainable development. With our products we aim to improve people's quality of life. In this context, we are always looking for ways to enable people to share the fruits of innovation, regardless of where they come from or how much they earn.
Bayer are committed to sharing their research developments regardless of income or location. The United Nations declared family planning a fundamental human right, however, there is lack of access and availability across the globe. At Bayer we are committed to end this. We currently support families in 130 countries, providing access to hormonal oral, implant and injectable contraceptives.
The aim is to break the cycle of poverty in many of these countries, prevent unplanned pregnancies and the associated health complications.
We also want to improve patent and IP enforcement policies in less developed countries. Currently Bayer ranks 18th on patient enforcement on accesstomedicineindex.com. We are one of only two companies who does not have a public commitment to not enforce patents in developing countries which we work to increase access to medicine in.
Moving forward we would like to take a public stance on not enforcing patents related to diseases in scope in Least Developed Countries and low-income countries. 18 other companies in the Index (access to medicine index) have already taken this step. We will also publicly disclose the status and life-cycles of our patents.
By supporting world health you can provide for basic human needs. People are far more likely to act sustainability and think of the wider impact of their actions if they are healthy, safe and secure.
Research and development of new drugs is a huge cost to pharmaceutical companies. It is also a very long process – the average time taken for a drug to reach the market has been approximated to twelve years [1]. AI can speed up the process of drug discovery. It analyses large data sets and recognise specific statistical pattern: this could help identify drug potential and side effects much earlier. Drug targets could be identified as quickly as 4 months and drugs could reach the market in less than 5 years. This will reduce the resources used to support these projects. Long drug discovery impacts consumer access and cost of medication. The money saved can help subsidise more sustainable behaviour and the higher process of sustainable procurement and ethical labour. We are aware of the risks of investing in development of AI. There is significant financial investment into this technology: it is a complex system which is prone to design faults and may not produce the financial rewards and accurate and efficient drug delivery we are hoping for. We must also not be blinded to other new technologies that may come along. Data acquisition and security is paramount to the success of AI.
IP is critical to our pharmaceutical division. The patents we gain allow us to realise important revenue from the lengthy and costly R&D processes in bringing our drugs to market. We’re proud to not enforce our drug patents under certain conditions and would like to continue and increase this practice over the next 10 years to the most underserved communities.
In order to remain competitive, however, we need to continually monitor our patent expirations and drug pipeline. Some of our highest earning drugs set to expire in the near future, most notably our heart drug Xarelto in 2024 (USA). Without a strong patent portfolio we will fail to grow revenues, uphold our duty to investors and increase the scope of our IP non-enforcement considerations to underserved communities.
Whilst we are excited about our future development pipeline we would like to bolster our immediate patents with the acquisitions of smaller rivals operating in the cardiology and oncology drug fields. We see a benefit both to our shareholders and to society in that smaller companies who control such IP often have stricter IP enforcement protocols and don’t engage as heavily in promoting access to medicine.
