The climate crisis is expected to increasingly impact nearly every therapeutic area, from cardiovascular and respiratory health to diabetes — and pharma marketers are poised to tackle the issue in a unique way, according to a new report out of Havas Lynx.
The report outlined the potential impact of the climate health crisis on various diseases and mental health, as well as the negative effects on pharma R&D, care and system capacity and burden of care.
It’s an issue that “hasn’t been as fully exposed as it needs to be,” according to Claire Knapp, CEO of Havas Lynx.
“What we’re seeing already is that one in four deaths are attributed to preventable environmental causes,” she explained. “The reality is that climate change is impacting our health across every therapy area you can imagine, whether that’s menopause, diabetes, oncology or dermatology.”
The report underscored the unique role the pharma industry can play in mitigating those impacts, both in addressing its own environmental impact — which makes up about 4.6% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide — and in developing new treatments to counter the health effects.
“Pharma is one of the few industries that’s both responding to — and responsible for — the climate health crisis,” Knapp said. “Of course, working on the agency side, that places [healthcare marketers] in that bucket as well.”
Expectations from HCPs and patients
The report found that healthcare providers (HCPs) are increasingly concerned about the climate crisis’ impact on health, with 77% recognizing the climate crisis poses a risk to their patients and believe it needs to be addressed.
Further, 41% of HCPs reported changing their prescribing habits due to the climate crisis, and over 50% said they are more likely to prescribe treatment if it’s more environmentally friendly.
“I don’t know a single pharma company that’s created a key message that says how environmentally friendly their treatment is compared to others,” Knapp said. “So that is a massive area to explore.”
About 75% of HCPs want pharma to take more action in the climate space, and that’s largely because physicians feel limited in what they can do themselves. But they’re not seeing it happen yet: Less than a third of HCPs think pharma is acting in this space or that pharma even understands the extent of the challenge.
“HCPs are driving the need for more to be done,” Knapp explained. “In general, HCPs are more environmentally conscious than the general population, and they’re needing pharma to do more in this space — but they’re not seeing that action taking place yet.”
Those concerns are reflected in patients as well, Knapp said.
Improving pharma’s reputation
The report also examined a link between pharma companies taking environmental action and their net promoter score (NPS), a metric that measures consumer loyalty that provides insight into reputation.
There was a direct correlation between companies that were doing more in the climate crisis space and receiving higher NPS scores, Knapp said.
Because that ultimately has an impact on corporate reputation and even prescribing habits, “it’s in pharma’s interest to take this more centrally into what they’re doing at a brand level, as well as at a company level,” she explained.
When it comes to what pharma companies can actually do, the approach is twofold. First, there are the net zero and other environmental commitments that pharma companies can tackle to reduce their own carbon footprints. Second, there’s the R&D work the industry can do to develop solutions to climate crisis health issues.
Perhaps most importantly, there needs to be more research: Knapp pointed out that while a significant portion of young people experience some type of eco-anxiety or mental health challenges associated with climate concerns, less than 1% of clinical research in the mental health space involves climate change.
“There’s a huge gap when it comes to the development of more treatments and understanding the link between climate change and health,” Knapp said.
Knapp also encouraged pharma companies to think beyond the corporate ESG pledges.
“Pretty much every pharma company has made a net zero [goal] to achieve by 2030 or 2050,” she said. “They are doing things such as planting trees, but a lot of those initiatives are stopping there. There’s a top-level commitment but it’s not necessarily trickling down to the brand level and being more thoughtful and strategic.”
Pharma marketers’ role
That’s where pharma marketers may be able to come in and have an impact. Knapp pointed to the development of risk calculators that can measure a patient’s risk of developing certain conditions such as diabetes due to air pollution, for example. But patient education is also key.
“Right now, if you have dementia or multiple sclerosis or cancer, and you’re in the middle of a heat wave and go online to find out what you should do — there’s very little information,” Knapp explained. “It’s a simple lift for pharma to produce that education and those risk calculators to counter it.”
Marketers can be more thoughtful on the creative side as well, she noted, including paying attention to whether campaigns are indirectly promoting environmentally friendly behaviors.
“If we generate a campaign that shows a convertible driving across a desert, we’re subconsciously promoting negative behaviors for the planet,” Knapp said. “Whereas it could be someone riding a bike through a park, and that’s subconsciously ingraining more positive behaviors.”
“I’d love pharma to be more thoughtful in what they are doing,” she continued. “We need to stop looking at climate change as a corporate communications pillar alone, and we need to bake it into how we act as a brand. That will unlock a million opportunities that are beneficial for pharma as well as for the planet.”
