Stakeholder engagement

We encourage constructive dialogue with all our stakeholders and others who have an interest in our activities to make sure we stay in touch with the external environment and the changing demands of sustainable development.

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.

AstraZeneca in Sweden ran such a meeting in Stockholm in December 2008. Participants included non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the research community, trade unions, government agencies, healthcare payers and the financial sector.  The agenda was focused on getting Swedish stakeholder perspectives of AstraZeneca’s responsibility as a global pharmaceutical company. Prevailing themes of the discussion included human rights, environmental issues and the supply chain.  We also held a multi-stakeholder meeting in the UK in January 2009, which focused on discussion of AstraZeneca’s CR performance and reporting, and the key issues that UK stakeholders see us facing in the future. Stakeholders included investors, academics, NGOs, peer companies and CR specialists. Stakeholders believed that AstraZeneca appropriately identifies and reports on the material issues facing us as a company. Key themes for the future were believed to be human rights, access to medicines and business ethics.  Stakeholders also felt that clearer articulation of AstraZeneca’s CR strategy was needed.

On a broader scale, our day-to-day business activities include 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 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 Issues Management Council includes the ongoing development of a common platform for monitoring and consistently capturing all key stakeholder concerns and expectations and, where appropriate, incorporating them into the global issue management agenda.  The continued changes to our business organisation in 2008 impacted our ability to complete this work during the year, but we plan to have the platform in place in 2009.

SHAREHOLDERS

We encourage feedback from shareholders both at face-to-face meetings and through formal assessments provided by surveys such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, which reflect areas of  shareholder interest.

In May 2008, we worked with Citigroup to arrange a meeting with 21 Socially Responsible Investors (SRIs) to discuss sustainability issues. The agenda was based on the feedback from a meeting that we held with a group of 20 SRIs the previous year and included clinical trials, sales and marketing practice, access to medicines and diseases of the developing world. Feedback after the 2008 meeting indicated that the group appreciated the annual opportunity for dialogue, the topics covered and the level of expertise among the speakers that we fielded. They also indicated that they would welcome the opportunity for broader discussion about how we are integrating CR into business strategy, in particular in respect of emerging markets and the anticipated financial, as well as social, benefits of our approach.  This feedback is being used to inform the development of our CR agenda and further meetings with SRI’s are planned.

EMPLOYEES

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 telephone helpline and an externally accessible, externally hosted website.

Global employee survey

We also use a global employee survey (FOCUS) to track employee opinion across a range of key topic areas. The surveys are conducted anonymously and with the help of an external specialist agency who also analyse the results, which we then communicate to all our employees.  The surveys provide valuable insights for business leaders and managers about what we are doing well and where improvements need to be made, and these insights are used to inform strategic planning across the business.  Read about the results of the 2008 FOCUS survey.

CUSTOMERS

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.

GOVERNMENT AND NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS

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.

PATIENT GROUPS

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 patient groups and organisations and 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.

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.

LOCAL COMMUNITIES

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 assured by Bureau Veritas, February 2009.