ESRS S4 Consumers and end-users [S4] Consumers and end-users [S4 SBM-3] Material impacts, risks, and opportunities and their interaction with strategy and business model
As part of our double materiality analysis, we have identified material impacts, risks, and opportunities (IROs) related to consumers and end-users in both the healthcare products and healthcare services sectors. Consumers and end-users are the people we treat in our hospitals, who use our products on patients, e.g. healthcare professionals such as doctors, nurses or pharmacists, or who receive our drugs as part of their therapy plan. We do not distinguish between different types of patients.
The aim of medical care provided in our facilities or with our products is to improve the health of patients. Nevertheless, the medical care of people also entails risks if our products are wrongly administered or in case of abuse. This could be harmful to consumers and end-users and / or increase the risk of illnesses. Patients therefore depend on accurate and accessible product- or service-related information, such as product labelling, package leaflets and patient information. Further, as explained in standard ESRS 2, we provide trainings and training materials to healthcare professionals, to enable correct and effective use and to minimize potential adverse effects. Our consumers and end-users may be particularly susceptible to health effects in our industry. Responsible marketing, advertising and distribution are therefore controlled by external regulatory requirements which have to be appropriately considered in our internal guidelines.
In connection with consumers and end-users, we have identified three material sustainability aspects on which we report below: