As war in Ukraine continues, it's business as usual for many U.S. healthcare companies in Russia
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in late February, the Yale School of Management has been tracking more than 1,200 companies that do business in Russia to see what their corporate response to conflict. The list includes dozens of healthcare companies, including many of the big vendor names. Some of these companies have curtailed or withdrawn operation in Russia, but some are taking a wait and see approach. However, some healthcare vendors are defying demands for an exit or reduction of activities and have continued operations in Russia as usual.
Bigger names on the list of companies continuing to do business in Russia include Medtronic, which operates a subsidiary in Russia; Stryker, which continues sales and imports to Russia; and the pharmaceutical company Amgen.
Below are the names of healthcare companies and their degree of operations or disengagement in Russia. The lists are organized by level of involvement in the Russian economy. Information technology (IT) companies listed are actively involved in healthcare IT solutions.
Almost 1,000 companies have publicly announced they are voluntarily curtailing operations in Russia to some degree beyond the bare minimum legally required by international sanctions, but some companies have continued to operate in Russia undeterred, said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean for leadership studies and Lester Crown Professor in the Practice of Management. He and his team of experts, research fellows, and students at the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute released the most recent update for the list on May 26.
This public tracking or corporate response has shed light on what companies are doing with their operations in Russia since the start of sanctions. The list is also viewed by some as going beyond who is complying with international sanctions and shows the level a corporation has to higher moral obligations and whether they want to be perceived as supporting the Russian regime with its continued economic activity there.
"When this list was first published the week of Feb. 28, only several dozen companies had announced their departure. We are humbled that our list helped galvanize nearly 1,000 companies to withdraw in the two months since," Sonnenfeld explained in the update.
Medical companies continuing business-as-usual in Russia
The Yale list shows several U.S. healthcare companies that are still doing business-as-usual in Russia despite sanctions:
• Align Technology
• Amdocs
• Amgen
• Check Point Software
• Kemin
• Medtronic
• NTT Data
• Stryker
• Zimmer Biomet
Non-U.S. healthcare companies continuing to do business in Russia include:
• Dr. Reddys Labs (India)
• Gedeon Richter (Hungary)
• Krka (Slovenia)
• Menarini Group (Italy)
• OKI (Japan)
• Sanatmetal (Hungary)
• Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (China)
• Stada Arzneimittel (Germany)
• Sun Pharma (India)
• Yokogawa (Japan)
Healthcare Companies that are waiting to see what happens with Russian and the war in Ukraine
The Yale list includes companies that have paused operations, paused advertising, suspended any further investments our projects, paused clinical trials, or paused moving forward with new clinical trials for now. These companies are taking a "wait and see" approach to what happens next with Russia's war. A large number of major pharmaceutical companies are on this list.
• Abbott Laboratories
• Abbvie
• Alcon
• AmerisourceBergen
• AstraZeneca
• Bayer
• Boiron
• Cisco
• Dr. Theiss
• Eli Lilly
• GlaxoSmithKline
• Idexx Labs
• Johnson & Johnson
• Laboratoire Servier
• Merck
• Novartis
• Pfizer
• Philips
• Polpharma
• Roche
• Sanofi
Medical companies that scaled back operations in Russia
This list of companies include those that have pulled back their operations significantly in Russia. This includes suspending all new investment and non-essential business activity. In some cases, this includes stopping all shipments of products to Russia.
• Boehringer Ingelheim
• Boston Scientific
• Novo Nordisk
• Orion
• Zoetis
Healthcare companies that suspended all operations in Russia
This lists the companies that have temporarily curtailed most operations, while keeping return to market options open.
• 3M
• Conformis
• Danaher
• Dell
• Eppendorf SE
• Lexmark
• LG Electronics
• Mettler Toledo
• Nvidia
• Oracle
• Ricoh
• Samsung
• Smartway Pharmaceuticals
• SonoSim
• Thermo Fisher
• VMWare
• Xerox
Healthcare companies that completely withdrew all operations from Russia
Companies totally halting Russian engagements or completely exiting Russia include
• Accenture
• Adamed
• Avantor
• Demant
• Esri
• Infosys
• Siemens
View the entire list, which is also searchable by company.
Dave Fornell has covered healthcare for more than 17 years, with a focus in cardiology and radiology. Fornell is a 5-time winner of a Jesse H. Neal Award, the most prestigious editorial honors in the field of specialized journalism. The wins included best technical content, best use of social media and best COVID-19 coverage. Fornell was also a three-time Neal finalist for best range of work by a single author. He produces more than 100 editorial videos each year, most of them interviews with key opinion leaders in medicine. He also writes technical articles, covers key trends, conducts video hospital site visits, and is very involved with social media. E-mail: dfornell@innovatehealthcare.com