Astellas promotes an ethical culture where people are expected to act with integrity and to prioritize patients and the long term, sustainable success of the company in their daily business activities.
Ethics & Compliance’s Integrity in Action program reinforces the importance of taking responsibility for ethics and compliance, acting with integrity and leading by example. As part of Astellas’ ongoing commitment to this program, our training and communications embed integrity and a patient-focused mindset, so employees can understand how being ethical and compliant helps them live the Astellas mission.
Astellas fosters a psychologically safe environment that encourages employees to speak up to raise a concern or report potential or actual violations of the Group Code of Conduct, as well as any unethical behavior or business practices. Reports may be made by employees or external third parties and may be made anonymously as permitted by local laws and regulations. All reports are handled by a global investigations team.
In addition, Astellas strictly prohibits retaliation against anyone who raises a concern or reports a suspected compliance violation in good faith even if the concern or report is not substantiated after investigation. Astellas regularly reinforces the importance of speaking up and the responsibilities that employees have in reporting through Astellas’ global Speak Up campaign which includes online resources, posters, communications, and presentations supported by a visual theme.
Centrally managing the reports of suspected non-compliance and the corresponding investigations also enhances Astellas’ ability to analyze compliance trends globally. Compliance hotline statistics, trends and themes are analyzed and reported to the Global and Regional Compliance Committees and business leadership on a regular basis.
Astellas leaders and managers are critical to the effective promotion and protection of the Astellas core values of integrity, ethics and compliance within their teams. Ethics & Compliance works closely with the business to engage in various initiatives designed to continually enhance and sustain an ethical and compliant culture at Astellas. This includes an ethical decision-making initiative with leader and manager workshops which incorporates key ethical concepts into practical tools that leaders and managers can use, as well as help their teams use, to guide and support ethical decision-making in their daily business activities.
Our Turn the Lights On program is an engaging and dynamic way to share lessons learned and best practices for navigating ethical and compliance issues using scenarios drawn from global investigations, compliance monitoring and other matters brought to our attention. This enduring platform engages local Compliance Committees and leadership in employee-facing scenario-based discussions and encourages dialogue at all levels of the organization to increase compliance maturity, ownership and accountability. Creating a safe speak up environment builds trust among our teams and trust in Astellas.
By putting the patient first and making ethical business decisions that support delivering innovation with agility and integrity, we create a long term and sustainable future that will continue to add value to patients and reinforces the trust on which our success is founded.