The first shareholder proposal to date asking companies to take action on drug disposal was voted on last week at the annual meeting of Johnson & Johnson. The proposal received a good showing for a first vote on a new issue, supported by 7.2% of shares voted. Those shares have a market value of $14 billion. SEC rules allow proposals that exceed a minimum threshold of 3% to be re-filed in the following year, so the proposal easily exceeded that benchmark. The next vote will be this Friday, May 6 at AbbVie and the third vote at Merck & Co. will be May 24. More information on our work on pharmaceutical waste can be found here.
