Every year, amid Women’s History Month, March 8 marks International Women’s Day—a day dedicated to both honoring past efforts and drumming up greater awareness and support for the ongoing movement toward gender equality.
To commemorate the occasion this year, many biopharma companies took to social media over the weekend to spotlight their own work to support women: through studies and programs focused on women’s health, and through efforts to champion female employees, who are often underrepresented in STEM fields.
GSK and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, two of the rare major biopharmas with female CEOs, both joined the IWD chorus. In respective LinkedIn posts, GSK spotlighted its commitment to involving pregnant and lactating women in clinical studies of its HIV medications “to inspire confidence in the use of innovative HIV medicines for those who need it most” while Vertex described a recent panel discussion hosted by its women-focused global employee resource network, the “main takeaway” of which was: “We all play a role in building a welcoming environment and supporting our colleagues.”
Like GSK, Regeneron and Roche’s Genentech homed in on the need for greater representation in clinical research. A Genentech Instagram post imagines a text message conversation between a scientist and her mother about the former’s efforts to ensure women are involved in scientific research—including through Genentech’s actual appearance on a panel discussion about women’s health at the SXSW conference over the weekend.
A detailed post from Regeneron lists several areas where the company is investing in women’s health: via in-house seminars about “unique diseases and health challenges faced by women,” studies of endometriosis, breast cancer and other conditions that predominantly affect women, support for programs backing young women in STEM and more.
Novartis and Bayer, too, used IWD to shed light on the gender health gap. Novartis shared a video in which a pink blazer-clad host approached people on the street to test their knowledge of that gap—only to reveal often shocking results about the rates at which women are misdiagnosed and the systemic biases they often face in clinical settings.
Bayer’s post pinpointed the common practice of many women to ignore their health issues because of limited awareness and treatments, writing, “When women have access to education and the right healthcare solutions, they’re empowered to live healthier, more fulfilling lives. That’s why we’re working to create real change by developing solutions that give women the tools and information they need to make informed choices about their health.”
Meanwhile, on the employee support front, Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca, Takeda, Gilead Sciences, Bristol Myers Squibb, AbbVie and Sanofi all shared posts celebrating the female members of their workforces and initiatives to get more women involved in STEM fields, many of them incorporating the official IWD 2025 theme of “Accelerate Action.”
Eli Lilly, for its part, celebrated both the women in its workforce and female patients. The company shared a video telling the story of an emotional meeting between Myra Garcia, a woman living with Alzheimer’s disease, and Jirong Lu, Ph.D., Lilly’s senior VP of biotechnology discovery research. The two became “fast friends,” according to the company, which added, “This International Women’s Day, we’re celebrating the impact of women in science and the brave voices of patients like Myra.”