Just 20 years ago, the pharmaceutical industry generated more carbon emissions than the automotive industry. This was stated by the CEO of Astellas Pharma for Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Hungary, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Svetoslav Tsenov. He was a guest at the fourth edition of ESG&FRIENDS 2025, which took place at the Hilton Sofia Hotel.
“I would like to specially thank Mr. Boyan Tomov for this magnificent event, which is of critical importance for the environment in which we live,” said Tsenov before talking about the integration of ESG into the management of his company’s business strategy.
Astellas Pharma’s approach
“The connection between the pharmaceutical industry and the environment seems obvious. But is it really so? In my opinion, not quite. Here is a fact that I myself did not realize until recently – just 20 years ago, the pharmaceutical industry produced more harmful emissions than the automotive industry. Now, of course, things are different, I just wanted to give a different perspective,” Tsenov surprised many of the guests at the ESG&FRIENDS 2025 conference.
He then stated that the transition to a sustainable model has become a top priority for Astellas Pharma.
“Of course, our goal is to produce medicines, to meet the needs of doctors and patients. It is also important to work in the field of education – to educate doctors, patients, students. We emphasize prevention and diagnosis. It is better to prevent the disease rather than treat it.
But here is a contradiction. In order to produce a cancer drug, we pollute the air and water, which increases the risk of cancer. This is what we have been trying to address for the last ten years, and therefore the impact on the environment is one of our biggest priorities.
I am a doctor by education and for me, not only the business aspect is important, but how we affect people, the environment and the Earth. The pharmaceutical industry wants to treat people, but it has to be environmentally friendly.
How can we achieve our goals? Pharmaceuticals generate a lot of emissions because it is a manufacturing industry. Why are there such large emissions – production, storage, delivery. These are very complex processes. In the past, everything was related to chemicals. Technology has changed that. Over the past 8 years, we have reduced our emissions by 40%. Our goal is to achieve a 60% reduction by 2030 and to be carbon neutral by 2050. And one more thing – 40% of the energy we use comes from renewable sources. 15 years ago, this percentage was only 2%.
I also want to talk a little about the use of water resources. Everyone has been to a hospital and everyone has seen the containers with liquids. The production of sterile water is very complex. For 1 liter, we need 10 liters of water. This is a very intensive process. That is why we have closed internal cycles to reduce this water consumption. We rely heavily on innovation and technological solutions. We have also reduced our waste by 15%,” said Tsenov.
Finally, he pointed out that Astellas Pharma has a sustainability committee, which observes the ESG processes in the company.
“ESG is already high on our priorities. We are proud to be an important part of the green transformation and not only that – 60% of our executives are women. 10 years ago I had no idea what I was talking about, now it is part of our mission,” concluded Tsenov.
