Abbott 2004 Global Citizenship Report - Abbott Laboratories

Citizenship at AbbottOur company’s sense of citizenship flows directly from our enduring mission:to use our expertise and resources to improve people’s lives around the globe.Global citizenship at Abbott reflects how our companyadvances our business objectives, engages ourstakeholders, implements our policies, applies our socialinvestment and philanthropy, and exercises our influence tomake a productive contribution to society.We recognize that citizenship is a process of continuousimprovement that is strategic and measurable. Abbott’sGlobal Citizenship and Policy department serves as theprimary catalyst to implement our global citizenship visionthroughout the company. A divisional vice president, whoreports to a corporate officer, heads the department. Theresponsibilities of the group include identifying issues,developing Abbott’s positions, managing philanthropic andemployee involvement programs, sharing best practices,and managing citizenship reporting.This report provides an update on our citizenship initiativesand builds on past reports, which are available atwww.abbott.com/citizenship/news/citizen_rpt.cfm.GovernanceAbbott has a long tradition of ensuring the independence ofthe majority of our board of directors. Independent boardmembers chair the public policy, audit, compensation, andnominations and governance committees. Among the criteriafor candidates of the board are a global business perspectiveand a commitment to good corporate citizenship. In 2004,we adopted a charter for the Public Policy Committee ofthe board. The charter includes the review and evaluationof Abbott’s policies and practices with respect to socialresponsibility. It covers a review of social, political, economicand environmental trends and public policy issues that affectAbbott. Details of Abbott’s corporate governance structureand committees are available at www.abbottinvestor.com.Citizenship ApproachIn 2004, we continued to make progress on our citizenshipprogram:• We led an issues identification exercise based on externalresearch, stakeholder engagement and internal interviews.We identified high-priority issues, including the HIV/AIDSpandemic, intellectual property, pharmaceutical pricing,product safety and counterfeiting, sales and marketingpractices, the uninsured, health care disparities amongminorities, and the U.S. liability environment. In 2005,we will review and enhance processes to manage theseissues, and we will monitor emerging issues to stayabreast of developments that affect our company andour stakeholders.• The Pharmaceutical Policy Committee, a forum of seniorexecutives who review major public policy issues, workedon U.S. Medicare Modernization Act implementation,reimportation issues, clinical trials data disclosure andaccess for the uninsured in the United States.• We expanded membership of the Global CitizenshipWorking Group to include greater representation from ouroperating businesses and key functions. The groupmanages our global citizenship reporting process andsupports citizenship efforts.• Abbott and our partners presented lessons learned andresults of our programs at several meetings, including theInstitute of Medicine, International AIDS Conference andGlobal Health Council Conference.6