Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
The UN Sustainable Development Goals are at the heart of the Agenda 2030 adopted by the United Nations in fall 2015. They define the social, economic and environmental milestones that are to be jointly achieved worldwide by 2030. Companies can make a decisive contribution to the 2030 Agenda. BB Biotech is facing up to its responsibility and is aligning its sustainability management and core business with the SDG.
With all of BB Biotech´s investments focusing on biotechnology as a subsector of the healthcare industry, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal number 3: «Good Health and Well-being», is at the core of BB Biotech’s investment strategy and our portfolio companies
SDGs at Board of Directors of BB Biotech AG and the Investment Manager level:
Based on the operating model as an investment company, the following four SDGs are most relevant for BB Biotech on Board of Director and Investment Manager level: good health and well-being (3), quality education (4), gender equality (5), decent work and economic growth (8) and climate action (13). This is where BB Biotech can have the most significant impact.
Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
Good health and well-being is an integrated part of BB Biotech’s investment strategy. Providing companies with capital, engagement and support for the development of new drugs is at the core for the Board of Directors and the Investment Manager. Therapies that address unmet medical needs, for example patients suffering from rare disorders, cancer, neurological diseases and chronic and metabolic disorders, are some of the key selection criterion when the Investment Manager makes investment decisions. The goal is to improve the patients’ quality of life, ideally curing the disease, with the treatment making an important positive difference to patients and society as a whole.
Goal 4: Ensure inclusive, equitable and quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
BB Biotech encourages continuing education for all employees and promotes life-long learning.
Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
BB Biotech fosters a culture of gender equality and promote a balanced mix of gender and age across all hierarchical levels and functions of the company.
Goal 8: Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all
BB Biotech and its delegated Investment Manager offer attractive, family-friendly working condition, promotes diversity, has a competitive salary policy with equal pay for women and men, and is committed to the training and development of its employees.
Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
BB Biotech and its delegated Investment Manager ensure that responsible operational ecology contributes to CO2 reduction. What cannot be further reduced is compensated for by purchasing CO2 emission certificates in the amount of the greenhouse gas emissions emitted each year ensuring our CO2 neutrality commitment.
SDGs at portfolio level:
At the portfolio level UN SDG’s are considered in order to derive the proportion of «sustainable investments» (c.f. also chapter «Proportion of ESG investments»). The concept of «Sustainable investments» introduces a positive contribution to an environmental and/or a social objective while not significantly harming any of these objectives. Furthermore, the portfolio companies must apply practices of good corporate governance.
ESG research provider MSCI ESG measures the target contribution of companies to each of the SDGs and categorizes them as «strongly aligned», «aligned», «neutral», «misaligned» and «strongly misaligned». A positive contribution to an environmental or social objective hence requires a company to exhibit a positive alignment with at least one of the 17 UN SDGs and at the same time not negatively influence any other SDG.
As at December 31, 2022, BB Biotech AG exhibits a share of 48% in sustainable investments. Thereby, the portfolio contributes to the following five UN SDGs that are marked in colour:
Some of BB Biotech’s portfolio companies positively contribute to UN SDG No.1 (No Poverty), No.3 (Good Health & Well-Being), No.5 (Gender Equality), No.8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) as well as No. 10 (Reduced Inequalities). Innovative biotech companies play a key role in contributing to the underlying objectives of «Good Health and Well-Being». To ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, UN SDG target No. 3.4.1 (mortality rate attributed to cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory disease) is particularly important.
According to MSCI ESG’s SDG alignment methodology, the following core portfolio holdings are positively aligned with the narrowly defined goals under UN SDG No.32: Ionis, Vertex, Incyte and Alnylam.
2 https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal3