As a follow-up to the industry study and report produced by Informa Connect Life Sciences, we have created this e-book as part of our INCLUSION series to provide additional analysis and insights from life science executives, investors, and advocates of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

At the Life Sciences Accounting & Reporting 2021 virtual event, a panel discussed how diversity efforts have expanded beyond an organization’s four walls to encompass the entire ecosystem and to include social justice.

The panel - titled Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Beyond the Four Walls of an Organization - looked at how organizations are going beyond just thinking or talking about DE&I, and are taking action, whilst individuals can play a key role in driving change through their talent and time.

They also looked at how there has been a change in the focus of D&I. Initially, the focus was convincing corporate leaders, who were not terribly diverse, of the business case for diversity. This case is now well established - there is a clear correlation between an organization’s diversity and its performance.

While women make up the majority of the workforce within pharma and healthcare, there is a lack of representation in higher positions within the occupational hierarchy. This piece looks at how to address this problem.

At the recent Life Sciences Accounting & Reporting virtual event, a panel discussed how diversity efforts have expanded beyond an organization’s four walls to encompass the entire ecosystem and to include social justice.

The panel - titled Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Beyond the Four Walls of an Organization - looked at how organizations are going beyond just thinking or talking about DE&I, and are taking action, whilst individuals can play a key role in driving change through their talent and time.

Leaders in biotech and pharma discussed powerful initiatives to foster diversity and inclusion in the industry in Investing in Diversity, a popular on-demand virtual session at the Biotech Showcase Digital conference.

As chair, Paul Hastings, President & CEO at Nkarta Therapeutics put it accurately as he opened the session: “The last number of years have made us reflect and understand that we’re falling short in living up to our potential sometimes, whether because of unconscious biases, institutional racism... or a multitude of other factors,” he said. “Regardless of reason, my own personal opinion is that we have to do better. We need to approach the issue from front to end.”

Many treatments suffer long delays in development, and even lack of funding, due to lack of diversity in clinical trial enrollment. Mistrust towards drug development processes lies at the heart of the problem, and is prevalent among patients of Black, Latinx, LGBTQ+ and low socioeconomic backgrounds in the US and Europe. However, leading companies in biotech and pharma are taking initiatives to tackle the problem.

In a panel discussion at this year’s BioPharm America Digital, session chair Elliott Francis, Director of Diversity & Inclusion at BIO and Celia Economides, Senior Vice President of Strategy and External Affairs at Kezar Life Sciences discussed how the industry can address the obstacles in patient enrollment for clinical trials.

It is important for companies in the biotech sector to adequately represent the patients they serve. With diversity and inclusion growing as a priority within the industry, organizations are beginning to look inwards at their working cultures and communities to review their progress.

In 2019, a survey carried out by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization found that 41% biotech organizations do not collect common diversity data such as demographics or discrepancies in performance rankings, pay and promotion. While over 80% of professionals demonstrated commitment to diversity and inclusion within their organization, less than 16% of companies had incorporated D&I targets into their hiring process or had set goals to promote or develop women or people of color within the organization.

At BioPharm America Digital in September this year, Paul Hastings, President & CEO at Nkarta Therapeutics, Sara Nayeem, Partner at venture capital firm NEA and Celia Economides, Senior Vice President of Strategy and External Affairs at Kezar Life Sciences, discussed what company leaders should look for to ensure they are actively making an impact.

Over 800 biotech professionals from across 34 countries gathered online for the virtual BioPharm America Digital conference, which took place as part of Biotech Week Boston in September 2020.

In an on-demand panel discussion, ‘Fostering diversity in and through biotech investment’, the panel members put forward a variety of best practices by which their organizations were driving diversity in the workplace and throughout the biotech sector.

Among them, Sara Nayeem, Partner at NEA, described the initiatives that were being carried out through her company, an active venture capital business within the biotech sector. Within this, she highlighted key responsibilities that venture capital firms and investors should adopt to address institutional discrimination and biases within the industry.

44% of pharma professionals think that women are under represented in their organization according to new data from an Informa Connect Life Sciences study. The April 2020 study was conducted on 432 life sciences professionals from the pharma, biotech, medical device and regulatory industries around the world, with the responses presented in the Diversity, Inclusion and Sustainability in the Global Life Sciences Industry 2020 report. Explore or download the full study report here.

Survey respondents were asked ‘How well represented do you think women are in your organization up to the most senior positions?’, with 13% believing them to be ‘hugely under represented’ and a further 31% ‘slightly under represented’. More encouragingly, 42% felt they are about equally represented, with just 16% believing them to be over represented.