Abbott 2004 Global Citizenship Report - Abbott Laboratories

Message From the Chairman and CEO“We put our values into action to help patients access affordable healthcare, the most important issue facing our industry.”Miles D. White, Chairman and CEOBeing a responsible company is more than a matter ofcivic-mindedness or community relations. Abbott hasbeen serving patients for more than 117 years and, for us,being responsible means ensuring we are as successfulin the future as we have been in the past. It also meansensuring that this institution will be there for patients,shareholders, employees and others who depend onus around the world.To build on our success over the past few years, we havefocused our business in two areas – pharmaceuticalsand medical devices. Today, our broad base of businessesand technologies makes Abbott one of the most stablecompanies in the health care industry, and enables us toserve more people than ever before.As we have focused Abbott’s strategic direction, we alsohave revisited the goals and beliefs that make our companywhat it is and guide our behaviors and decisions. Our“Promise for Life,” which is found on the previous page,is our statement of purpose. It declares what Abbott is allabout and contains a vision for what our company strivesto be. The Promise stands upon a strong foundation: ourvalues – pioneering, achieving, caring and enduring. ThePromise is based on the insights of a broad sampling ofour key stakeholders – from customers and patients toemployees and health care professionals worldwide. Insome respects, it is aspirational because it is intended tobe our compass, guiding us toward ongoing improvementand inspiring us to aim higher. In other ways, the Promisereminds us of who we have always been. It reflects how weresponsibly deploy our expertise and resources, and howwe conduct ourselves in ways that will continue to earn thetrust of our many stakeholders and the millions of peoplewe touch every day.We put our values into action to help patients accessaffordable health care, the most important issue facing ourindustry. And this is what led Abbott’s citizenship agenda in2004. Through the Abbott Patient Assistance Program andHumira Medicare Assistance Program, we provided morethan 200,000 patients in the United States with free anddiscounted medicines valued at more than $235 million.We also expanded our Medicare AssistanceProgram to make a number of Abbottmedicines available at a substantialdiscount to patients lacking prescriptiondrug coverage. Internationally, our StepForward program provided services to morethan 146,000 children and families affectedby HIV/AIDS in Burkina Faso, Tanzania,India and Romania.The Abbott Access program reached amilestone in 2004 when we shipped our 25millionth rapid HIV test, at no profit, to Africa and otherdeveloping countries. We donated $5.5 million in funds,prescription medicines and nutritionals to aid victims of theIndian Ocean tsunamis. We also joined others in our industryin several forums to advocate for policies that improve accessto health care for patients.In 2004, guided by our values, we continued to integratecitizenship across the business. The charter for the PublicPolicy Committee of the board of directors includes thereview of Abbott’s policies and practices with respect to socialresponsibility. We translated our Code of Business Conductinto 35 languages and rolled out a global ethics andcompliance program. We created a new Global ProductProtection group to address the rise of counterfeitpharmaceutical products. We also set ourselves five-yearperformance goals in a number of key environmental, healthand safety areas.Our report illustrates our commitment to citizenship throughthe ways that we deliver on our Promise and live our values.To me, citizenship at Abbott expresses the best hopes andintentions of our company and our people – to be creative andproductive, to make a real difference, and to be caring citizensof the world we share. We are proud of our achievements todate, and we will continue this important work.Thank you for taking the time to learn more about our efforts,Miles D. White2