Improving respiratory health outcomes by strengthening environmental commitments

The connection between the planet’s health and our own is clear, especially when it comes to lung health.

Studies have demonstrated that poor air quality contributes to poor health outcomes for patients with respiratory diseases, and as a result, missed workdays and less productivity for employers, and greater costs to healthcare systems and payers. This is especially true for certain underserved minority populations in urban environments that are often heavily exposed to environmental pollution. 

Yet, for the most part, our traditional fee-for-service healthcare system has not addressed environmental quality as a health issue. 

Climate change is worsening air quality, increasing the likelihood of allergen exposure, exacerbating the impacts of lung diseases, and increasing transmissibility of respiratory infections. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 90 percent of people globally breathe unhealthy air, mostly from the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas, which is also the current primary cause of climate change.

Quantifying the impact on patients

Although care guidelines recommend behavioral changes, medicines and avoiding lower air quality environments, some patients in inner city and even rural settings are unable to move to avoid air pollution. Therefore, the industry must take steps to improve environmental health and air quality while delivering innovative new medicines. The health of these underserved patients’ lungs depends on these premises. 

With 2024’s record heat and weather patterns showing a clear trend, people living in the U.S. with respiratory diseases may face increasingly inhospitable climate conditions that increase the risk of exacerbations. It is becoming clear that together we all must act to protect the planet and take steps to improve air quality. 

Millions of people die prematurely every year because they inhale fine particulate matter, continuously, for years. These are particles that contain hundreds of different chemicals yet are small enough to travel deep into the respiratory tract, reaching the lungs. Exposure to fine particulate matter causes cancers and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). By WHO estimates, air pollution caused 4.2 million premature deaths globally in 2019 and is one of the greatest risks to health. 

Healthcare’s obligation to patients and the planet

In the healthcare industry, providers and payers can lead the way to treat environmental quality as the health issue it is by adopting fee-for-value models that incentivize population health outcomes. As they increasingly move away from old fee-for-service to embrace these newer fee-for-value models, they will find an ally in Chiesi. 

As a benefit corporation, certified B Corp and global leader in respiratory health, Chiesi is compelled to help others in protecting patient health and the environment; it is a responsibility, and not a matter of compromise. The company embraces its responsibility to generate healthy outcomes for people and the planet, and it takes a broader view to consider how making drugs contributes to environmental factors that affect lung health.

“Our goal is to deliver better outcomes for patients with respiratory diseases. To ignore the data about the effects of air quality on patients would not serve that purpose. Our industry must recognize our role in the very crisis we are trying to combat,” said Martin Marciniak, Vice President of US Medical Affairs at Chiesi. “Chiesi not only acknowledges this role, but we also believe our company can be a catalyst for the industry to band together in a shared cause to benefit patients with respiratory diseases – especially those in yet-to-be-served populations.” 

How Chiesi is taking action

As Chiesi brings its innovative respiratory portfolio to the U.S., it will build on a nearly 90-year history of delivering sustainable business value globally. Although the company’s goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions is still several years away, small and large steps together have returned significant progress, especially for respiratory patients – including those most exposed to lower air quality environments.

One of the greatest contributors to Chiesi’s greenhouse gas emissions comes from the propellant gas contained in some of its pressurized metered dose inhalers (pMDI). The company has reduced emissions from the production process of its pMDIs with abatement systems at two of its manufacturing sites to liquefy F-gas propellant, preventing emissions caused by releasing it into the atmosphere. Chiesi’s rigorous greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets were approved by the Science Based Target Initiative and align with the Paris Agreement’s most ambitious goal for limiting the rise of global temperatures.

“If we can reduce our environmental impact, if we can make air cleaner for people to breathe, and if we can identify communities and individuals who might be at the highest risk for the environmental factors that trigger or exacerbate respiratory disease – we can improve health outcomes. That’s directly aligned with the goal of value-based care, and we’re looking for partners to join us in this purpose,” said Richard Smith, Vice President and business unit leader of Chiesi Air USA Inc. 

Chiesi embraces its responsibility to help create a sustainable future for the planet and all the people who inhabit it. 

“No one acting alone can prevent the major health catastrophe of climate change and air pollution. It’s time for every actor in the healthcare industry – including drugmakers – to join in the movement to deliver better health outcomes for all,” Smith said.

About Chiesi in the United States. Chiesi is a global, privately held biopharmaceutical company driven to elevate care for patients affected by respiratory diseases, rare diseases and those needing hospital-based care. For nearly 90 years, we have committed to being a force for good, helping to improve quality of life for patients, their families and communities.