Working with suppliers

AstraZeneca uses thousands of suppliers around the world. Being a responsible business means we only work with suppliers who have ethical standards that are consistent with our own.

Monitoring standards and performance with many suppliers is challenging, but this is essential to protect our business and reputation, and most importantly the patients who use our medicines.

Business practices, cultural norms and legal requirements can vary from one country to another. Our Global Responsible Procurement Standard makes it clear what we expect of suppliers wherever they are based and we work with suppliers to help them understand and comply with these standards.

In 2011 we continued to assess, monitor and manage our supplier performance. We updated our global standard to strengthen the anti-bribery and anti-corruption (ABAC) requirements, in line with our ABAC policy and the requirements of the UK Bribery Act.

Having strong standards is important, but on their own may not be enough to guarantee that all suppliers are living up to our expectations. Our programme of risk assessment, due diligence and audit helps us monitor supplier performance and we include responsible procurement clauses in supplier contracts. If we identify problems with our suppliers, we work with them to improve their performance and check their progress regularly. If a supplier can’t or won’t meet our expectations we will stop working with them.

This section of our website provides more detail about our standards and the processes we have in place for embedding responsible procurement into everyday business practice across the company. In line with our commitment to openness and transparency, we also report on our progress to date.