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Our commitment to sustainability does not end when our life-saving medicines have been developed and manufactured—it continues throughout the process of transporting them to destinations around the world. Bristol Myers Squibb’s Packaging and Logistics operations, which are responsible for packaging, labeling, storing and distributing the company’s products, are continually looking for opportunities to conserve energy and reduce carbon emissions.
Bristol Myers Squibb assessed more than 90% of new products in the R&D portfolio as part of our Sustainability 2020 Goals. This work required the development of and alignment on processes to evaluate the environmental impact of new products packaging in the R&D portfolio, as well as secondary, tertiary and build packaging of prioritized products. We also introduced the PIQET system, which is a streamlined life cycle analysis tool that is used to produce 10 prioritized BMS products. The effort was successful in evaluating 100% of our prioritized products, including the implementation of solutions to reduce the environmental impact from our packaging.
E-labeling refers to a recent shift to provide the label information meant for healthcare professionals electronically rather than on paper. Opdivo was the first Bristol Myers Squibb medicine to be E-labeled, with Yervoy and Orencia expected to follow in Canada in late 2021. We have also started a review of regulations worldwide to explore expanding the practice to other markets. E-labeling doesn’t just drastically eliminate paper use. It saves on shipping and helps remove any confusion over changing medical information, fitting well with our focus on the patient, gaining efficiency and speed, and eliminating the time spent on printing, packaging and shipping medication labels.
As part of our Sustainability 2020 Goals, we transitioned Orencia’s packaging to a high product density lightweight packaging, leading to:
in annual CO2E
emissions reduction.
reduction in volume
of packaging
solid waste.
shipping savings/year for
Orencia and approximately
$3 million annually for
Orencia and Opdivo combined.
