Climate Change Data

Environmental Metrics

ESG Focus Areas

• Environmental
• Social
• Governance

Environmental Achievements

• Reduced energy requirements in office spaces as a result of a move to remote working due to COVID-19.
• Reduction in travel (both business and commuting) due to COVID-19.

Social Achievements

• No redundancies or furloughs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Increased mental health offerings to help staff cope with the ongoing changing conditions of the health crisis.
• Welcomed 177 new employees through the acquisition of Ashfield and MedSource and recruited an additional 120 staff and promoted over 250 staff.
• Delivered six leadership, management, technical knowledge and soft skills training programmes during 2020 which were attended by 319 employees, racking up almost 800 hours of training.

Governance Achievements

• Review and focus the Group’s strategy on the CRO and PV service business sectors.
• Oversee and monitor the adoption of key financial standards.
• Committed to the acquisition and integration of PrimeVigilance USA and MedSource.
• Approved the sourcing and securing of £30 million debt financing facility.
• Ongoing review of Risk, Compliance and Corporate Governance processes.
• Initiated project to implement share options administration system.
• Review of key corporate policies; including local HR policies, anti-bribery and whistleblowing policies.
• Review and oversight of the Capital Reduction process.
• Implementing formal, regular Board effectiveness evaluations.

Climate Goals & Targets

Environmental Challenges

• COVID-19 pandemic impact on business, including regulatory restrictions, management of centers and logistics, significant drop in monitoring services.
• Competition from companies with greater resources.
• Cancellation or delay of clinical trials or projects by customers.
• COVID-19 pandemic, natural disaster or terrorism.
• Dependency on pharmaceutical industry.
• Legislation and regulation of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
• Quality and third party oversight.
• Access to capital.
• United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union.
• Retention of senior and key employees.
• Dependence on a limited number of key clients.
• Information security and data privacy.

Mitigation Strategies

• Transitioned to remote working with the best possible technology; no redundancies or furloughed staff.
• Worked with study sponsors to enable remote monitoring and maintain patient safety; regular communication with sponsors and study-specific COVID-19 risk management plans.
• Implemented remote and centralised clinical trial management and monitoring activities; patient profile software.
• Simplified strategy to focus on CRO and PV service sectors and foster cross-development opportunities; CCO leading the combined CRO and PV marketing and business development teams.
• Drive to provide high-quality services at competitive rates, drawing upon our differentiators in the marketplace.
• Terms of Ergomed’s contracts seek to mitigate the impact of cancellation or delay by structuring standard study close-down procedures with the customer. PV contracts contain provisions for transition of services.
• Formation of a COVID-19 task force; protect staff health through temporary office closures and moving to remote working; no staff were furloughed or made redundant; monitored existing IT systems; remote clinical trial monitoring and PV case processing; temporary draw down of £15 million debt facility; scenario planning; partially reopened offices; stopped all but essential business travel.
• Group’s business continuity plans apply if access to office sites is restricted due to pandemic, natural disaster, or terrorism.
• Increases in the global number and complexity of trials, along with higher levels of regulation and compliance, have resulted in more services being outsourced to specialist providers as the pharmaceutical industry focuses on core expertise and cost savings.
• Actively engages with its customers to protect its existing relationships, including through competitive pricing of its services, seeks to increase the diversification of its customer base.
• The regulatory environment continues to develop and become more complex. Although there are signs of the global harmonisation of regulations, particularly in high-growth regions such as Asia, regulatory bodies remain separate and compliance must be upheld in each region of operation.
• Ergomed is a strong advocate of rigorous Good Clinical Practice (‘GCP’) guidelines and PV regulation.
• Maintains a highly professional Quality Assurance team and self-audit programme.
• Cash-generative; built up a cash and equivalents balance; secured a debt facility.
• Strong presence and established trading subsidiaries both in and outside the UK; detailed preparation work and thorough review of UK, EU and international regulatory processes; established procedures under GDPR; appointed an EU GDPR representative; Intercompany Personal Data Processing Agreement.
• Develops its strategy for identifying, retaining and motivating key and senior employees through a mix of short and longer-term financial and non-financial incentives.
• Generates leads and requests for proposals from new clients to diversify the Company’s customer base.
• Robust internal policies and procedures to ensure the protection of personal data and to ensure compliance with data privacy laws and protection from unauthorised access; regular training; tested safeguards; physical and virtual security of information; industry best practices; appropriate levels of insurance including cyber-risk.

Supply Chain Management

Responsible Procurement

• Stable relationships with suppliers for core service provisions that are based on shared values and financial stability.

Climate-Related Risks & Opportunities

Reporting Standards

Frameworks Used: SECR

Third-party Assurance: Green Element Limited and Compare Your Footprint Limited