Organon is committed to making a material difference to the health of women globally. And we know that this needs to begin with being a company that lives by its values: supporting the health and well-being of our own staff and leading the way with progressive workplace policies.

‘For decades, women’s health issues have been overlooked, normalised and deprioritised, and in many cases, issues have been entrenched and exacerbated by the impact of the pandemic’

Led by a majority female leadership team, Organon’s leaders drive our commitment to women’s health and inspire us to do more for women every day. Our Board of Directors has more women than any S&P 500 healthcare company, all of whom bring their unique perspectives to help us achieve our company’s vision.

As a company investing in innovations to improve women’s health, we recognise our responsibility to address this within our own global community. To mark International Women’s Day this year, we gave all 9,500 employees globally the day back, to help them carve out time to dedicate to their own health. We also actively invited other organisations in the UK to join us in making a pledge to zoom in on women’s health in whichever way they were able.

We recently introduced two new workplace policies across our offices in the UK, Northern Europe and Israel, to support employees experiencing menopause or pregnancy loss (whether due to miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, abortion or still birth). By doing this, we aim to create visibility and openness around these life events which have an impact on our workforce.

These women’s health-focused initiatives all sit within the wider context of the UK government’s Women’s Health Strategy for England and the Scottish Women’s Health Plan. Both strategies set out to tackle the challenges that lie at the heart of improving health outcomes for women and mark a real milestone moment for women.

We focus on three key areas to achieve our vision of a better and healthier every day for every woman. These three pillars – women’s health, biosimilars and established medicines – are the foundation for how we strive to achieve this vision.

We work to provide medicines and other products that help address a wide array of conditions and diseases that women face or that women are disproportionately affected by. Our hope is to give women, and their loved ones, more choice throughout their lives.

We are constantly pursuing opportunities to collaborate with biopharmaceutical innovators looking to commercialise their products by leveraging our scale and presence in fast-growing international markets. To strive for new innovations, in the past year alone, Organon has acquired Alydia Health, a medical device manufacturer focused on women’s health, and Forendo Pharma, a clinical stage drug development company focusing on novel treatments in women’s health. Most recently, we have entered an agreement with Henlius Biotech, a Shanghai-based global biopharmaceutical company, through which Organon will license commercialisation rights to two biosimilar candidates for treatments to support certain patients with breast cancer and certain patients with osteoporosis with high risk of fracture.

We believe the diversity of our business provides a sustainable engine of growth so we can continue to invest in and advance new medicines and treatments for women that are so urgently needed. As a company working towards this promise, we are active in a range of therapy areas including reproductive health, heart disease, dermatology, allergies and asthma. We have a strong foundation of more than 60 medicines and other products and an international footprint that serves people in more than 140 markets.

Organon’s own surveys have highlighted some of the barriers women face around access to healthcare, which has been entrenched and exacerbated by the pandemic.  In a survey commissioned by Organon in September 2021, one in five women (23%) reported that they have struggled to get a contraception appointment and more than one in three (36%) have had at least one unplanned pregnancy. Research recently undertaken by University College London (UCL) has shown that women were nine times more likely to have difficulties in accessing contraception during the first lockdown than before the pandemic – and that unplanned pregnancies throughout nearly doubled (from 1.3% to 2.1%).

The recently published Women’s Health Strategy acknowledged challenges in access to reproductive health services, alongside negative experiences in accessing contraception. Women’s Health Hubs across England have been put forward as a means of providing management through a life course approach, rather than organising services around an individual issue. For example, this could enable contraception and reproductive health to be managed in one visit, with opportunities to integrate other services such as cervical screening.

Menstrual health, contraception and pregnancy planning are just some of the priority areas identified in the strategy, and its themes align closely with Organon’s vision of better health every day, for every woman.

The strategy, and the appointment of the Ambassador for Women’s Health, Dame Lesley Regan, signal positive change – but one that now requires collaboration and action among key stakeholders to ensure the good intent of the strategy is realised. This is something Organon is committed to being a part of and we look forward to working with professional and patient organisations throughout the UK to drive forward the improved health standards that all women deserve.

Sandy Lindsey is Head of Women’s Health at Organon for the UK, Northern Europe and Israel