Delivering impact through projects

The PSCI brings members together to tackle some of the most complex sustainability, ethics, and responsible supply chain challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry. Through collaborative projects, shared learning, practical tools, and industry-wide initiatives, members work collectively to drive meaningful change, improve standards, and create impact that goes beyond what any single organisation could achieve alone. Explore some of our recent projects below.

Horseshoe Crabs: Protecting a Vital Resource

Project overview

Since 2023, PSCI Member companies and their subject matter experts have worked together on the use of horseshoe crab blood in medicine and vaccine safety testing. The aim is to protect endangered species while safeguarding patient safety. The work was funded through the PSCI's Projects workstream.

The challenge

Horseshoe crab blood contains an enzyme that clots on contact with bacterial endotoxins, which can cause serious illness or death. Pharmaceutical companies use it, or its synthetic alternative, to test medicines and vaccines, and many regulators require this testing. 
Harvesting does not require the death of the animal, but there is some associated mortality and collection from wild populations raises concerns about animal welfare, biodiversity and conservation, particularly in Asia, where populations are endangered.

What PSCI did

Members developed a progressive industry position calling for no further collection of Tachypleus Amebocyte Lysate (TAL), minimal reliance on naturally derived testing materials, and a clear understanding of animal welfare and conservation issues. The PSCI committed to monitoring Members' approaches and reporting on them anonymously. In 2025, the working group surveyed Members and published a report on the ethical and conservation issues, the global endotoxin market and the barriers to change. In 2027, a third phase of the project will bring new insights to Members, in collaboration with endotoxin test suppliers.

Key Findings

  • Member companies are phasing out TAL from Asian horseshoe crabs. This is likely to increase demand for Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL) and synthetic alternatives, so companies need to plan for the resilience of their supply.
  • Many companies are setting reduction targets, and more are expected to publish roadmaps, which will become mandatory for those in scope of the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.
  • Regulatory acceptance is a major barrier, as local agencies and pharmacopoeias influence which tests companies can use.

Next steps

The PSCI will keep working with others in this space, spotlighting developments and working to advance regulatory acceptance of alternative methods, as well as raising attention to the ecological context with Asian suppliers. A second Member survey and progress report will track change over time.

The Decarbonization Summit: Lead with Purpose. Act Together. Decarbonize Faster.

Project overview

In October 2025, the PSCI held its first-ever Decarbonization Summit, a two-day virtual conference designed to help pharmaceutical suppliers start, progress and lead on their decarbonization journeys. It was funded through the PSCI's Projects workstream.

The challenge

Suppliers face a patchwork of customer expectations on emissions, and they are at very different stages, from setting a first target to acting on advanced strategies. Decarbonizing the pharmaceutical supply chain depends on suppliers receiving clear, consistent guidance.

What PSCI did

The Decarbonization Topic Team, made up of Member experts, designed the Summit around the PSCI Decarbonization Maturity Model. Sessions were grouped by maturity level so attendees could join the ones most relevant to them. Topics included setting an emissions baseline, building a supplier engagement plan and the role of life cycle assessments. Partners including Energize, PEG, Biophorum and the Sustainable Markets Initiative contributed expertise, and Chief Procurement Officers and other senior leaders joined panel discussions.

Key outcomes

•    1,377 virtual attendees from 807 companies.
•    An average rating of 4.5 out of 5 across all sessions.
•    Supplier maturity varies widely, and suppliers want simpler, standardised data requests.
•    Senior leaders' involvement showed that decarbonization is a commercial priority as well as a compliance one.

Next steps

The PSCI will keep supplier engagement at the top of its agenda, simplify data requirements, and work with the right partners to avoid duplication. A strategy day in early 2026 brought together more than 80 people to shape the future of the workstream.

PSCI Worker Voice Project

Project overview

The project was launched to help PSCI Member companies strengthen their human rights due diligence by engaging directly with workers in their supply chains. Recognizing that individual companies often have limited visibility into working conditions at supplier sites, PSCI adopted a collaborative approach, using a digital Worker Voice platform to gather anonymous feedback from workers across participating suppliers in the facilities management sector.

The challenge

Human rights due diligence regulations increasingly require companies to engage with affected stakeholders, including workers. However, obtaining meaningful worker feedback across global supply chains can be resource-intensive and difficult for individual companies to achieve at scale. PSCI members sought a practical and collaborative way to gain deeper insight into workers’ experiences while reducing duplication of effort for shared suppliers.

What PSCI did

PSCI brought together 10 Member companies with shared suppliers and partnered with a specialist Worker Voice provider to deploy multilingual worker surveys across supplier sites worldwide. The project gathered feedback from approximately 1,700 workers across 47 sites in 14 countries and 11 languages. PSCI and participating Members worked closely with suppliers throughout the process, using the findings to identify potential human rights concerns and opportunities for improvement.

Key outcomes

The project demonstrated that a collaborative Worker Voice approach can be successfully implemented across the pharmaceutical supply chain. Strong participation rates reflected supplier engagement and support for the initiative. Participating members gained direct insight into workers’ experiences, while suppliers received actionable findings to strengthen their own human rights due diligence efforts. PSCI also released an anonymized and aggregated Trends Report for the PSCI Membership, enabling members and suppliers to identify common themes, benchmark performance, and better understand potential risks across the sector.

Next steps

Building on the success of the pilot, PSCI now engage with participating suppliers to review findings, address identified issues, and support continuous improvement. 

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