Stakeholder engagement is an important part of our priority issue identification and action planning at both a global and local level. To ensure we have an appropriate level of dialogue with our stakeholders on CR-specific issues we continue to arrange events with an exclusively CR-focused agenda. On a broader scale, our day-to-day business activities include ongoing interactions with all our various stakeholders to get the insight we need to maintain a flow of new medicines that bring benefit for patients and add value for shareholders and wider society. Whilst such dialogues are business-driven, rather than CR specific, they also provide the opportunity for CR issues to be raised by either party.
The work of our new Issues Management Council includes the development of a common platform for monitoring and consistently capturing all key CR concerns and expectations and, where appropriate, incorporating them into the global issue management agenda.
We encourage feedback from shareholders on our reputation both informally at face-to-face meetings, as well as the more formal assessments provided by surveys such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes.
In September 2007, AstraZeneca worked with Citigroup to arrange a meeting with 20 Socially Responsible Investors (SRIs) to discuss sustainability issues. The agenda was recommended by Citigroup, based on their knowledge of what SRIs most want to hear about and included clinical trials, sales and marketing practice, pharmaceuticals in the environment, access to medicines and diseases of the developing world. Feedback after the meeting indicated that the investors appreciated the opportunity for dialogue, the topics covered and the level of expertise among the speakers that we fielded. Issues that they would welcome wider discussion of included access to medicines and our TB programme. This feedback will be used to inform the development of the agenda for the next meeting, planned for Q2 2008.
As well as line manager briefings and team meetings, we use a wide range of electronic and printed media to communicate regularly with our employees around the world. Feedback opportunities are integrated into our internal communication programmes and, in addition, our Code of Conduct outlines the procedures for employees to raise integrity concerns, including a confidential helpline.
We also use a two-yearly global internal survey to track employee engagement and identify areas of concern. These surveys are conducted anonymously and with the help of an external specialist agency who also analyse the results. During 2007, we also introduced a regular employee ‘Snapshot Survey’, which takes place regularly during the year to ensure we stay in tune with employee perceptions between Global Surveys.
Our day-to-day business activities include regular contact in our local markets with physicians and other healthcare professionals, and those who pay for healthcare. Our communications focus on providing information about our medicines, the diseases they treat and the benefits and risks associated with their use. As buyers of healthcare, national governments are often also our customers as well as being our regulators, and access to medicines that offer therapeutic and economic benefits is an important part of our dialogues with these groups.
The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most highly regulated of all industries. Almost every aspect of our business is subject to regulation or ethical overview. It is therefore essential that we participate in public policy dialogue with governments and other public bodies to exchange views on issues that impact our business. Our exchanges with governments are aimed at creating a constructive framework for the development and implementation of policies and regulations that affect our industry in a way that delivers good regulation and sound operational practices. We also work with, and through, national and international trade associations to promote industry best practice and engage effectively with key government and international agency stakeholders. And in addition to our work with the Red Cross, AMREF, Axios and VSO, we also have discussions with other non-governmental organisations and international bodies such as the World Health Organization and OXFAM.
The work that began in 2006 on the development of an internal Code of External Affairs Practice was integrated into the revised AstraZeneca Code of Conduct during 2007, to ensure that the highest standards of integrity are applied to all communication programmes and public policy strategies that are intended to inform those who set or influence public policy. We will also be supporting the Code of Conduct with detailed guidance for all those engaged in the public policy debate on behalf of AstraZeneca about how to apply these standards in order to create and maintain a constructive dialogue with governments and other relevant stakeholders.
Staying in touch with changing needs is vital to our aim of making the most meaningful difference we can to patient health. . We continuously talk to patients and their physicians to understand what they need and want. This includes working with, and supporting, patient groups who represent the particular demands of specific health issues, as well as discussing with healthcare professionals the broader range of disease challenges they and their patients face.
In line with the UK ABPI code of practice requirement to do so, we make public (through our website, AstraZeneca.co.uk) all our relationships with patient groups in the UK. And in line with the Swedish pharmaceutical industry association (LIF) code of practice requirement to do so, we make public (through LIF’s external website LIF.se) all our relationships with patient groups in Sweden. Using these external requirements as a baseline, during 2006 we also developed a set of standards for interactions between AstraZeneca’s global therapy area teams and patient groups, and information about our support is now available on this website. We actively supported the development by EFPIA of a code that calls for increased transparency in respect of the industry’s support to patient groups and healthcare organisations in Europe. We also contributed to the 2006 update of the IFPMA Code of Marketing Practices, which now allows formal complaints to be made to the IFPMA regarding alleged improper practices, such as promotion of off-label uses.
Beyond this, we are in the process of developing a global framework for consistent management and capture all of our support to patient groups and other healthcare organisations worldwide, with a view to publishing this information, including the nature of the relationship and the associated financial commitments, during 2008.
Our ongoing aim is to ensure that all of our relationships with patient groups and other healthcare organisations continue to be based on transparency, trust and a shared objective to improve the lives of patients.
Our site-based community liaison teams aim to ensure that we maintain open dialogue with our local communities, keeping them informed of our business activities and plans, and giving the opportunity to raise any concerns.
The content of this page was externally verified by Bureau Veritas, February 2008
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