Abbott 2004 Global Citizenship Report - Abbott Laboratories

We Strive to Earn the Trust of Those We ServeWe strive to earn the trust of those we serve by committing to the higheststandards of quality, excellence in personal relationships, and behaviorcharacterized by honesty, fairness and integrity.The trust people place in the products we develop, and inour company, is something we have worked to earn, andcontinually strive to maintain. Safeguarding that trustrequires us to promote a culture at Abbott that encouragesethical conduct and compliance with the law. We have builtan array of processes and systems to ensure that ourcompany meets the highest standards of corporategovernance, ethical conduct and product quality. Ourcommitment extends to every Abbott employee aroundthe world, as well as to our contract workers, agentsand suppliers.Ethics and ComplianceAbbott’s Office of Ethics and Compliance (OEC) is led by avice president and chief ethics and compliance officer whoreports directly to our chairman and CEO.The chief ethics and compliance officer makes periodicstatus reports to the Public Policy Committee of Abbott’sboard of directors and presents an annual report to the fullboard. This officer also chairs the company’s BusinessConduct Committee, which oversees implementation of ourethics and compliance program. The structure of the OECincludes operating-unit personnel and corporate subjectmatterexperts with company-wide responsibility.Board of Directors andPublic Policy CommitteeAbbott’s Office of Ethics and ComplianceChairman of the Board andChief Executive OfficerVice President and Chief Ethicsand Compliance OfficerBusiness ConductCommitteeOperating GroupsDivisional Vice President,Ethics and CompliancePharmaceutical ProductsGroup (Domestic)Medical Products Group(Domestic)Subject Matter ExpertsDirector, ReimbursementDirector, Internal InvestigationsDirector, Corporate IntegrityAgreement ComplianceInternationalProgram and TrainingDevelopmentDirector, Government Contracts/Global PharmaceuticalOperations/CorporateFunctional Groups32