Ethical business culture

An ethical business culture is essential to successful risk management, and we are committed to increasing public trust in our industry. We drive the highest standards of conduct and accountability beyond compliance, including, but not limited to, anti-bribery and anti-corruption, product safety, use of human tissue and animals for research, human rights, and building supplier capabilities to uphold high social standards.

Our approach

The key elements of our commitment to an ethical business culture are:

• Our Code of Ethics and Values, which guide everything we do and ensure that we deliver life-changing medicines in a responsible way. We reinforce our commitment to ethical business conduct through annual Code of Ethics training, delivered to all employees and relevant third parties
• Values-based decision making. We emphasise values-based decision-making, and encourage our workforce and suppliers to adopt a sustainability mindset that embraces our core Values
• Visibility and transparency. Being visible and transparent about our business supports learning and development for our employees, suppliers and partners, which is fundamental to meeting the expectations of patients, investors and broader society

Human rights

AstraZeneca respects the rights of all people. We are committed to treating everyone with dignity and respect and to ensuring the third parties we work with do the same. Our commitment to human rights arises from our Values, which is the basis of our Code of Ethics, and is formalised in our Code, Global Standard on Expectations of Third Parties, Modern Slavery Statement, sustainability initiatives, and other requirements, procedures and practices. We are guided by international human rights principles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which we have committed to as signatories to the UN Global Compact (UNGC). We continue to benchmark and improve our approach to Human Rights through industry working groups including Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative (PSCI), Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) and Fair Wage Network with particular focus on due diligence, new legislation and responsible sourcing initiatives.

Responsible Supply Chain

We expect all employees and contractors to follow our Global Standard for the Procurement of Goods and Services. We monitor compliance through assessments and improvement programmes, and all our suppliers and partners must meet our Global Standard on Expectations of Third Parties. We conduct audits on high-risk commercial suppliers (external manufacturing partners) to ensure appropriate practices and controls.

Anti-bribery and anti-corruption

We do not tolerate bribery or any other form of corruption. Prevention of bribery and corruption is a focus of our third-party risk management and due diligence processes, as well as our monitoring and audit programmes. We reinforce our commitment to ethical business conduct through our annual Code of Ethics training, which is delivered to all employees and relevant third parties.