As originally published by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services
Rabin Martin is proud to sponsor a Harvard Business Review Analytic Services white paper on “Reframing Health Equity as a Strategic Pharma Imperative.”
Addressing health inequities is one of the greatest challenges in global health. These inequities are rooted in societal and cultural constructs and go beyond the field of health and medicine. Each country, region, and community are facing deep concerns about being able to provide the right environments, tools, and resources to allow their populations to reach their health potential.
The COVID-19 pandemic unearthed the structural insufficiencies found in health systems, the biases that were built into processes, the unrest and lack of trust in science, and the need for resilient public health protections around the world.
And more so, it showed that the inequities affect productivity, are economic burdens, and are imperative to solve for businesses to thrive and provide for the various stakeholders. Addressing these inequities requires multi-sector collaboration – and the efforts that the health and biotech industries are taking to address health inequities are encouraging.
For years, through their philanthropic contributions, the pharmaceutical industry has aided communities and underserved populations through, for example, supporting screening programs or patient assistance programs. However, this white paper shows that the industry has recognized that not only is it about being a good corporate citizen, but building health equity as part of the business strategy is necessary for reaching business objectives and aligning to purpose and mission.
This white paper goes beyond admiring the problem – it provides components for any organization to consider in developing a health equity framework that aligns with company agility, growth, stakeholder, and investor demands.
We encourage the reader of this report to stop thinking of addressing health equity as a societal nicety but a fundamental requirement to how governments, industry, and other sectors must develop, design, manage, and evaluate their programs and contributions to be relevant and thrive.