While hundreds of businesses ranging from auto makers to breweries have retreated from Russia, drugmakers have mostly maintained sales in the country, saying they condemned the war even as they sometimes needed to supply critical drugs. obliged to.
The pharmaceutical industry has not faced as much criticism as others for continuing to do business in Russia, although some – including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – say that Moscow’s aggression should lead to a complete withdrawal of pharmaceutical companies. justifies.
Glaxo said on Wednesday it would halt imports of certain products in its consumer healthcare range, including mouthwashes, vitamins and food supplements, although it would also provide over-the-counter remedies such as the flu-symptomatic drug Theraflu and the pain reliever Voltaren. Will continue to do Glaxo does not have manufacturing facilities in Russia.
The move reflects the ethical constraints the company is trying to operate on.
Phil Thomson, Glaxo’s head of global affairs, said, “Deciding to ration drugs when you’re ultimately affecting people, not necessarily the state, is a real ethical question for a company focused on healthcare. , and provides healthcare.” Interview given before the announcement. “The notion of self-rationing we have about us is incredibly challenging to deal with.”
Top Glaxo officials are currently meeting two to three times a week to review the situation in Russia and Ukraine, including its response.
The company previously said it would not enter into contracts supporting the Russian government or military, such as providing vaccines for military vaccination programs. Glaxo has also pulled advertising in the country and has pledged to donate any profits made there to humanitarian relief for the people of Ukraine. It has also stopped enrolling new patients in existing clinical trials and will not start any new clinical trials in Russia.
Those moves were broadly in line with those of most other drugmakers, but fewer companies have scaled back their product ranges. Among them is Eli Lilly & Company, which said it would stop supplying drugs it deems non-essential. It did not specify whether this counted as non-essential, although a spokesperson said one example was the erectile dysfunction drug Cialis.
AbbVie Inc. has said it will suspend sales of beauty products in Russia. This includes Botox for cosmetic use, although the company continues to sell injections for medical uses, such as migraine prevention.
Johnson & Johnson has said it will halt the supply of personal care products, although it did not specify which. The company’s consumer arm sells items ranging from Band-Aids to skin and beauty brands like Neutrogena and Aveeno.
Russia is not a big market for Western drug makers. According to analysts and companies, sales in the country usually make up less than 2% of the worldwide total of companies. Officials said working in Russia is also challenging and companies may soon be unable to supply all of their drugs to the country.
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management who has been tracking companies’ responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said drugmakers should proceed by either pulling out entirely or supplying only those drugs. Which are strictly life savers.
“The goal is to kill the average Russian,” he said. “If you go ahead and provide these comforts to these pharma companies, you’re making life easier for them. You’re supporting decency.”
Mr. Zelensky has also directed criticism in the industry. In a speech in mid-March, he named Sanofi, Bayer AG and J&J, along with several businesses in other regions, as companies that he claimed “still sponsor Russia’s military machine.” ” And, in his opinion, the Russian market should have been abandoned immediately. Those companies did not comment on the speech, but pointed to actions taken to reduce activities in Russia and to donate humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Executives must also face internal opposition to their positions in Russia. At pharmaceutical and crop-science giant Bayer AG, some employees have asked officials to stop selling all of the company’s medicines, seeds and other products to Russia.
“We are spending a lot of time discussing what is the right thing to do,” said Bayer chief executive Werner Baumann. Meetings were held every other day to discuss the company’s response in the early weeks of the invasion. The situation is that we cannot do justice to every opinion.”
Bayer continues to supply Russia with agricultural products as well as drugs such as the blood thinner Xarelto. However, it has said it will suspend all advertising, halt capital-investment projects and will not pursue any new business opportunities in Russia and Belarus. It has also threatened to stop supplies of its crop to Russia next year unless Moscow stops its attacks on Ukraine.
“Everything you’re going to do is going to gain you and you’re going to lose,” said Carolyn Saprial, managing director of crisis management consulting firm CS&A International. “There is a moral responsibility on the one hand and a moral responsibility on the other.”
This story has been published without modification to the text from a wire agency feed
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