Health equity: A framework for the epidemiology of care

Industry engagement

Pharmaceutical and life sciences companies are well­ positioned to advance health equity and to realize better outcomes for more patients, to reduce health system costs, and to innovate more—and more profitably. Although the social determinants of health (SDOH) are hyperlocal, pharmaceutical products are among the few constants across geographies.

The industry, which is already beginning to act collaboratively, can build on its momentum by taking several steps. For starters, companies can institute uniform industry standards to identify and track unmet needs—a move that will help calibrate R&D investments against the global disease burden. It will also galvanize the industry and other ecosystem players (such as governments and nongovernmental organizations) to fill gaps, and provide regulatory support for key initiatives. In addition, companies can agree on common metrics to track clinical trials and determine how well they match the underlying epidemiology of disease and develop codes of AI conduct to address the needs of different subpopulations.