Particularities and Requirements of the Evolution of Sustainability Reporting in the Romanian Pharmaceutical Sector

Nowadays, many companies have adopted non-financial reporting in addition to financial reporting, presenting sustainable development practices. They have prepared and published sustainability reports or non-financial statements to highlight their commitment to sustainability. ESRS - the European Sustainability Reporting Standards, and GRI - the Global Reporting Initiative emphasize social, environmental, or governance impacts. The objective of the research is to present the particularities and requirements regarding the evolution of sustainability reporting of companies in the Romanian pharmaceutical sector. The gaps in non-financial reporting regarding the Comply or Explain Statement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG) were also presented. The current research addresses these aspects from an empirical perspective based on the analysis of the reports of companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The exploratory analysis is carried out for the period 2011- 2023. The information was taken from the financial and non-financial reports, available on the official websites of the companies analyzed. The results of the research, although limited to one sector of activity and only to companies listed in the Premium category, on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, these being considered a reporting model for other unlisted companies, demonstrate that in Romania companies do not offer a specific structure of non-financial reporting, the implementation of these reports being still in its early stages. Future research directions may consider a larger sample of companies, both listed and unlisted, from various sectors of activity, in order to be able to perform a comparative analysis by activity areas and to have an exhaustive picture of sustainability practices and existing challenges at the national level.