From the beginning, Idorsia’s leadership has emphasized that sustainability is central to how we define our success. Sustainability is at the heart of our leaders’ decision-making on how to grow our company, and it is part of the ethos instilled in our employees from their first day at work. We are building a company to last, and as we expand – with new affiliates in countries across the world – we integrate sustainability into our global operations. 

This has been our approach from the outset: the company was founded with a strong governance framework in place, including a broad range of policies, standard operating procedures, and guidelines to drive a culture of integrity. Our commitment to sustainability has been reinforced over the years. For example, we have strengthened the monitoring and disclosure of our performance on a wide variety of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) topics important to our stakeholders, particularly our environmental footprint. Furthermore, with our growth and transformation into a commercial company, we have expanded oversight, employee training, and other measures to ensure our business is conducted ethically and in line with relevant legal and regulatory requirements in all the markets in which we operate. Today, ESG reporting is already one of the four topics included in our company goals for the year, affecting every employee’s short-term incentive. 

As we look forward to a strong growth trajectory, we will continue to be open and transparent, engaging with our stakeholders as our approach to sustainability evolves. 

At Idorsia, we follow the science – which often leads us to seek input from a variety of perspectives. We value collaboration with academia, industry partners, governments, NGOs, and others, to help us find solutions to scientific challenges. 

We take this same approach seeking input from and partnering with stakeholders to ensure the sustainability of our business. We understand that the best solutions are often found through dialogue with diverse voices from across our value chain. 

To achieve this, we regularly reach out to our stakeholders to discover how they rate our performance as we strive to deliver on our purpose. We use their input to shape our company’s approach, manage risk in our operations, and inform our sustainability framework. 

Even though Idorsia is a young and relatively small company, we also seek to adhere to industry best practices in our approach to sustainability. In 2020, we therefore conducted a comprehensive stakeholder outreach program to inform our materiality analysis. This involved engaging with seven priority stakeholder groups with an interest in Idorsia’s future as a sustainable company.  

These groups were: 

  • Patients and patient associations 
  • Healthcare professionals and the medical community 
  • Scientific and academic community 
  • Local communities 
  • Idorsia employees across all levels of the organization 
  • Investors and analysts 
  • Idorsia’s Board of Directors 

We asked these key stakeholders to help us explore their expectations on topics that will be key to our future success, and to validate and prioritize the major areas identified in the outreach program. The results of our stakeholder engagement activities, and in particular the in-depth outreach program, were fed into a materiality assessment, which helps Idorsia to prioritize areas of our business that are most important to ensure a sustainable future for our company. The materiality assessment provided key insights on each topic, and the priorities identified are shown in the infographic above.  

To build on these learnings, we continue to engage with our stakeholders to refine our materiality assessment. Part of this engagement is an online survey, first launched in 2021, which we continue to use to gather feedback from our stakeholders. The survey probes the themes uncovered in our initial materiality assessment, looking in particular at how it should evolve as our company develops. All our stakeholders are invited to participate in this survey at this link. 

Idorsia's material topics

Product innovation

This is the essence of what we do, the core of Idorsia’s business. Innovation involves putting the unmet needs of patients at the center of our research and developing medicines that can make a real difference.

Product safety and quality

Our future depends on the reliability of our products, which we demonstrate by proving clinical efficacy and safety and ensuring product quality throughout the supply chain.

Compliance & business ethics

We aim to meet not only the high standards of compliance required in our highly regulated industry, but also the expectation that we operate as an ethical company. 

Employee welfare & engagement

Our ability to attract and retain great scientific and business talent is fundamental to successfully innovating, developing and delivering on our pipeline.

Risk management & business continuity

We aim to guarantee our business continuity by achieving financial sustainability. Good governance processes also help us manage risk throughout our operations.

Access to medicines

As an engaged member of the healthcare ecosystem, Idorsia understands its role to help find solutions to the high cost of healthcare and is committed to doing our part in supporting patient access to our medicines.

Transparent communications

We regularly engage with our stakeholders and offer proactive, fact-based and honest communication to facilitate open dialogue.

Supply chain

We will maintain a reliable supply chain to ensure the delivery of safe, high-quality products to patients.

Partnerships & scientific collaborations

The success of our pipeline relies on exchanges and partnership with scientists, healthcare professionals and patient organizations to drive innovation.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion

We are dedicated to fostering respect, fairness and equal opportunities for all our employees, as we believe it is vital to create and support a diverse and inclusive workplace.

Environmental impact management

Climate change is a challenge that companies are increasingly prioritizing, and we will keep a strong focus on our impact as we grow.

Investment in communities

We have close ties with our local communities and want to bring our passion for science to those, especially young people, who live nearby.