Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:
As members of PhRMA, we believe improving human life means celebrating human diversity
Measuring our progress in our DE&I journey
Our overall ambition regarding diversity is to reach at least a gender balance target of 40/60 at senior leadership level, a representation of People of Color to reflect local demographics and mirror the global working population and echo the multi-generations of the global working population.
Inspiring a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion
At UCB, we inspire a culture of Inclusion by providing equitable opportunities to all employees, embracing diverse talents, and leveraging diversity of thought and experience to create value for patients, now and into the future. In the U.S., we have seven Employee Resource Groups open to all employees. We have also implemented training on courageous conversations to address the systemic nature of racial injustices and inequities and are continuing to develop our learning journey for all employees and leaders.
Commitment to Diversity in Clinical Trials
A key objective for us at UCB is to ensure that the participants in our clinical trials are truly reflective of the patients that will benefit from the medicines we develop.
We developed and implemented new guidance on "Enhancing Diversity Equity and Inclusion in our Clinical Trials." Our clinical teams use this to define diversity in a clinical trial and key areas to consider when designing and operationalizing a clinical trial, such as protocol design, country and site considerations, leveraging different data sources and patient advocacy, and community engagement ultimately to bring our clinical trials closer to reality.
We are finding new ways to connect to unique and diverse patient populations through our technological and data driven approaches by identifying best practices around scientific rigor, informing innovation, and addressing health inequities.
We are exploring and deploying tactics to diversify clinical trials.
We developed and implemented new guidance on "Enhancing Diversity Equity and Inclusion in our Clinical Trials." Our clinical teams use this to define diversity in a clinical trial and key areas to consider when designing and operationalizing a clinical trial, such as protocol design, country and site considerations, leveraging different data sources and patient advocacy, and community engagement ultimately to bring our clinical trials closer to reality.
We are finding new ways to connect to unique and diverse patient populations through our technological and data driven approaches by identifying best practices around scientific rigor, informing innovation, and addressing health inequities.
We are exploring and deploying tactics to diversify clinical trials.
UCB Community Health Fund
The UCB Community Health Fund was first launched in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund aims to address health disparities amongst vulnerable populations.
In accordance with the WHO's philosophy on healthcare, UCB adopts a holistic view on health, encompassing physical, mental and social well-being. Through the Community Health Fund, UCB can support the health of vulnerable populations such as racial and ethnic minorities, children, older people, socio-economically disadvantaged persons, un(der)insured or those with certain medical conditions (not related to UCB therapeutic areas nor assets) in the countries where UCB is active.
Environmental Sustainability:
As members of PhRMA, we believe a healthy environment is essential for improving human life
Reaching carbon neutrality by 2030
Our commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2030 for the operations we directly control will be achieved through two mechanisms:
• 80% of our time, effort and money will be invested in reducing our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by changing the way we operate
• 20% will be dedicated to offsetting the short-term impact we cannot avoid via compensation programs.
Taking concrete action to reduce GHG emissions we don’t directly control
The indirect impact created by the activities of our goods and services suppliers on behalf of UCB represents a significant proportion of our CO2e emissions.
In recent years, UCB has been working with suppliers and supporting them to shift towards a low-carbon economy. UCB’s CO2e indirect impact baseline, which was fully calculated in 2021, sets a clear vision of UCB’s suppliers and Contract Manufacturing Organizations’ (CMOs) CO2 emissions as well as their level of maturity in the low carbon economy.
In this regard, we are now requesting CMOs and other partners to join us on our quest to define ambitious climate targets with an aim to have 60% of the emissions created by our suppliers covered by SBTi-inspired goals.
Eco-design for drug development
UCB is paying close attention to the environmental impacts of chemical manufacturing, and more specifically, working on the eco-design of our medicine production processes.
To evaluate our efforts in this area, UCB chose in 2019 to adopt the Global Warming Potential (GWP) metric developed by the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Green Chemical Institute (GCI). In 2020, the business process to set up ambitious targets for every new synthetic molecule was put in place. At the end of 2021, the first-year review took place, showing that UCB had already made considerable progress towards reaching its target.
Creating greener workspaces and reducing waste
Sustainability is an important part of our business at UCB, and we’re dedicated to improving energy efficiency within our U.S. facilities to enable us to serve patients in the most eco-friendly way possible. This means reducing our carbon footprint, water consumption, and waste production across U.S site locations. We are contributing to the health of the planet through a more sustainable model for our facilities.
UCB is embracing new workplace initiatives to support a greener UCB. One of these initiatives is our new Atlanta Warehouse (inspace) that features a sustainable kitchen focused on decreasing paper and plastic consumption by incorporating reusable/washable plates, silverware and glasses, and promoting a farm-to-table approach to in-office dining. Nearly 92% of waste from the first phase of demolition at the Warehouse was reused throughout the Atlanta inspace. It also features two 8,000-gallon rainwater collection cisterns that will assist in reducing our water consumption.
UCB is embracing new workplace initiatives to support a greener UCB. One of these initiatives is our new Atlanta Warehouse (inspace) that features a sustainable kitchen focused on decreasing paper and plastic consumption by incorporating reusable/washable plates, silverware and glasses, and promoting a farm-to-table approach to in-office dining. Nearly 92% of waste from the first phase of demolition at the Warehouse was reused throughout the Atlanta inspace. It also features two 8,000-gallon rainwater collection cisterns that will assist in reducing our water consumption.
Access & Affordability:
As members of PhRMA, we believe that living our mission of improving human life relies on broad access to medicines
Sustainable Access and Pricing Transparency
At UCB, we have a fundamental commitment to enabling people living with severe diseases, their caregivers, and their families to live the lives they want. We innovate to deliver unique outcomes that help specific patients achieve their life goals, to create the best individual experience for them, and to ensure access for all patients who need our solutions in a way which is viable for patients, society and UCB. Following our 2021 Integrated Annual Report, the first UCB U.S. Sustainable Access and Pricing Transparency report highlights for stakeholders how UCB accounts for the value of its medicines and opportunities to advocate for policy reforms to build a sustainable U.S. healthcare system.
This report includes:
• How we deliver affordable access and account for value, including our pricing
• Our actions aimed at sustainable access in the U.S. healthcare system
• Policy reform opportunities to build a sustainable system together
This report includes:
• How we deliver affordable access and account for value, including our pricing
• Our actions aimed at sustainable access in the U.S. healthcare system
• Policy reform opportunities to build a sustainable system together
Improving access for underserved populations
Our goal is that by 2030, all patients who need our medicines in countries where we operate have access to them. UCB recently created a new managed access program called Access+. Our approach is to provide access to our treatments through a standard mechanism in place for receipt, review, decision, management, and closure of unsolicited requests and activities related to supplying investigational products or products approved by at least one major regulatory body.
In the U.S., we’re looking to build on our health equity work by developing new social business approaches that stand up to healthcare disparities seen in the communities around us. While we’re in the early stages of developing a blueprint, this will include leveraging an “Innovation Hub” model to incubate new approaches and engaging with underserved and marginalized communities to offer solutions that use a human-centered design approach.