Opioids crisis
/According to the CDC, opioids were involved in nearly 75,000 overdose deaths in 2023,77 a crisis that continues to ravage communities across the country. The sale and distribution of opioid medications carries significant legal and reputational risks for companies with long-term and systemic societal and economic impacts.
The Investors for Opioid and Pharmaceutical Accountability (IOPA) was a diverse coalition of global institutional investors with 67 members representing over $4.2T in AUM that was established from 2017-2023 to engage opioid manufacturers, distributors and retail pharmacies. IOPA members filed more than a hundred shareholder proposals and took on the most important governance reforms within major pharmaceutical companies to better manage societal and enterprise risks. Central to the IOPA’s strategy was to involve the board in opioid risk management by asking independent directors to investigate and report on how the board is assessing and managing legal, financial and reputational risks related to its opioid business. Fourteen of these companies agreed to conduct board-level risk assessments of opioid-related business practices including governance, compliance, compensation, and political lobbying, and to report these findings publicly. Two companies created a board-level committee dedicated to opioid oversight.
For further information on corporate engagement with health equity issues, see ICCR’s page.