As a leading life sciences investor, we have a unique opportunity to drive positive societal change. We have a strong preference for investing in companies and assets that can improve the health of society and champion sustainable consumption and production.

A key strategic objective for us is to support innovation that has potential to generate attractive long-term returns. We do this by investing in companies that are recognized as at the cutting-edge of their peer group in terms of both the development and implementation of new technologies as well as in their general approach to achieving their ambitions.

We have identified three societal impact areas of focus that are particularly important to us. These are the areas where we can most leverage what makes Novo Holdings an impactful investor for societal good: our strong legacy, our mission, our life sciences focus, our network and our market-leading expertise.

The framework we use in establishing our impact focus areas is based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This ensures that our activities are truly anchored in what needs to be done to meet the critical needs of society and the planet.

We believe that we are uniquely positioned to invest and deliver considerable positive societal impact within the following areas:

We also have established three further focus areas based on three additional SDGs which we find embody our standards as a responsible owner. These closely align to our values of Performance, Respect and Responsibility, and they enhance our ability to ensure our investments are working for the greater good.

Measuring progress
Measuring our progress on societal impact and our responsible investments approach is complex due to the diverse nature of our Investment Portfolio across sectors, asset classes and company maturities (from start-ups to established companies). As a starting point, we are defining metrics connected to our six societal impact focus areas. The metrics will help us track how ESG-practises of our portfolio companies are progressing (e.g. gender diversity, CO2-emissions or employee engagement). Further, we will develop metrics connected to how we invest for positive outcomes (e.g. how many people get access to medical consultation). We plan to do the first round of measures and establish our baselines during 2022 and work to evolve our approach.