Investors are changing their view of pharma during the COVID-19 epidemic

In this article for Nikkei, Yoshinaru Sakabe delves into the reasons why the COVID-19 epidemic is spurring investors to look increasingly closely at how pharmaceutical companies address access to medicine, particularly for infectious diseases.

This long and detailed article examines how the Japanese pharmaceutical industry is changing – and how investors are coming to increasingly value Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors when evaluating companies. The article sets out how the Access to Medicine Index compares pharmaceutical companies on their efforts to improve access to medicine in low- and middle-income countries. It quotes the Access to Medicine Foundation in emphasising that "pharmaceutical companies that reinvest in research and development on infectious disease control in the medium term will be evaluated highly from the perspective of ESG".