Community support

Wherever AstraZeneca is located worldwide, we aim to make a positive contribution to our local communities through sponsorships, charitable donations and other initiatives that help to make a difference.

Our activities are focused on bringing sustainable benefit in ways that are consistent with our business of improving health and quality of life, and on promoting the value of science among young people.

In 2008, we spent a total of $718 million ($588m in 2007) on community sponsorships and charitable donations worldwide, including our product donation and patient assistance programmes which make our medicines available free of charge or at reduced prices. During the year, our expanded patient assistance programmes in the US contributed to a total commitment of $646 million worth of medicines valued at average wholesale price ($518m in 2007).

We also contribute where possible to disaster relief efforts. Immediately following the devastating cyclone in Myanmar (Burma) in 2008, we committed $200,000 to increase Red Cross emergency relief stocks held in the charity's regional Disaster Response Centre in Kuala Lumpur. We also worked with our US-based partner, AmeriCares, regarding donation of appropriate medicines. AmeriCares worked through their established partners in Burma as they were best equipped to assess the immediate, on the ground situation based on their familiarity with the region. AstraZeneca Thailand also worked directly with the Thai government to help get medicines to those in need.

Also in 2008, following the earthquake tragedy in China, we worked with the Ministry of Health's disaster relief command centre in the Sichuan Province. We initially provided $150,000 of funding and donated supplies of our anaesthetics, Diprivan and Naropin, to support the command centre's ongoing relief effort. As the scope of the devastation continued to emerge, we committed a further $900,000 to a programme designed to help the affected communities re-build their lives. Work is focused on training and deployment of epidemic prevention staff; providing education support and psychological counselling to 500 orphans and children disabled by the earthquake, and establishing two rural health clinics in the affected area to provide high quality medical services.  We also donated $900,000 to the designated national charity, the China Charity Foundation, and we had further supplies of anaesthetics on standby in case they were needed.

STRENGTHENING POLICY AND PROCESSES

During 2008, we revised and strengthened our global Community Support Policy, to provide an enhanced platform for harnessing, aligning and maximising the benefit of our worldwide community support commitments. As well as community support, the Policy also describes the requirements regarding product donations and support to patient groups and other healthcare organisations.  The new Policy is one of 11 new Global Policies developed to support our new Code of Conduct, which were launched in January 2009.  Targeted training for all relevant staff is planned for 2009.

We have a dedicated community support database that gathers global information centrally, enabling the sharing of information and best practice across the organisation and supporting accurate financial reporting of our overall spend in this area. The database is also another means of ensuring that our efforts are aligned with our commitment to bring benefit mainly through healthcare and science education initiatives.

In December 2008, AstraZeneca became a member of the London Benchmarking Group (LBG) , which is a group of over 100 companies working together to measure community investment. Our membership of LBG provides the platform for improving our capture of the time and services of our employees where they are involved in community activities, and will enable us to assign a tangible monetary value to these activities for inclusion, over time, in our reported community investment.

* including MedImmune

The content of this page was externally assured by Bureau Veritas, February 2009.

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At 05-Nov-2009 21:45  GMT