The nature of AstraZeneca’s business – discovering and developing meaningful medicines to save and improve lives – is to deliver a tremendous benefit to society.
As one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies, our business is focused on turning good ideas into innovative, effective medicines that make a real difference in important areas of healthcare. We also believe responsible and ethical business practices are critical to advancing patient health. For us, responsible business is a continuing process of improvement that we strive to reflect every day in our decisions and actions.
This year AstraZeneca was recognized for our efforts to foster a healthy workforce and as an employer of choice. We again received CEO Gold Standard reaccreditation by the CEO Roundtable on Cancer and worked to reach mental health parity in our health plans, offering the same level of mental health care coverage as medical and surgical benefits. In addition to changing our own health plans, we promoted federal legislation requiring other employers to offer the same level of coverage
2008 Ethics and Compliance Highlights:
- Established a cross-business Responsible Business Team to align AstraZeneca US responsible business strategy with the company’s global strategies and practices
- Strengthened global Code of Conduct for AstraZeneca US employees
- Supported 14 employee networking groups to encourage diversity
- Received recognition as employer of choice on FORTUNE’s 100 Best Places to Work, Working Mother’s 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers, Top 20 of Diversity MBA Best Companies, among others
- Continued to integrate responsible business in our global purchasing category management processes
In the coming year, we will track our responsible business performance to improve our processes and identify areas for future growth. Our Responsible Business Team will be monitoring objectives against our Action Plan drafted for 2009/2010 in the areas of diversity and corporate governance and compliance, among other categories. Our plan will help us maintain and develop a healthier company.
Looking ahead: Our goals for 2009 and beyond …
- Introduce “Responsible Business” scorecard to track performance
- Recruit, develop and retain an increased number of women and minorities
- Focus on age as part of Diversity program and increase the engagement of mature workers
