Chugai Group Human Rights Initiatives

Establishment of the Human Rights Statement

Chugai’s efforts to date to respect human rights have mainly been focused on respecting the human rights of its employees, including the prohibition of discrimination and harassment in the workplace, respect for employee diversity, and health and safety. However, in order to move ahead with business activities in various areas around the world as a global company, we established our Human Rights Statement based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in January of 2019. This was based on the recognition of the need to address human rights issues, including respect for labor rights among stakeholders involved in our business activities and throughout the supply chain.

Chugai Group Human Rights Statement [PDF 19KB]

Promotion system

At Chugai, we regard human rights as a material issue (materiality) in our sustainable business activities (Sustainability), and position them as one of our compliance issues. Policies regarding human rights efforts and activity progress are reported to and deliberated by the Compliance Committee. They are also reported to the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors for instructions.

Various issues concerning human rights are to be addressed in a coordinated effort by the relevant departments listed below. In addition, new systems will be established to address newly emerging issues in consultation with the appropriate relevant departments.

Roles and responsibilities in the governance for our Human Rights Promotion System

Compliance Committee Supervision of the Human Rights Statement
Human Resources Management Dept. Employee labor practices, diversity promotion, labor unions
Research Ethics Committee Bioethics
Risk & Compliance Dept. Discrimination, harassment, employee consultation service and whistleblower hotline, human rights in the supply chain, and privacy (including personal information protection)

Identifying human rights issues

From April to May 2021, we conducted hearings from relevant departments regarding the content of human rights due diligence efforts based on “the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights”. Based on the results, we reassessed the risks using two evaluation axes (severity, probability of occurrence) and identified five areas as important human rights issues for the Chugai Group. Chugai will identify, prevent and mitigate negative impacts on human rights at its own companies, group companies and suppliers, evaluate the effectiveness of its efforts, and explain and disclose information on how it has addressed these issues.

Areas of Human Rights Issues Relevant human rights themes
Patient Safety Management of clinical trials
Ensuring quality safety
Eliminating distribution of counterfeit drugs
Preventing and responding to accidents at the use and disposal stage
Personal Information and Privacy Protecting personal information and privacy
Human Rights in The Supply Chain Toxic spills at customer sites
Biopiracy at customer sites
Forced or child labor
EHS, employment and working conditions
Human Rights of Employees in the Workplace Power harassment of employees
Superior conduct toward client employees
Customer harassment towards employees
Discrimination and long working hours
Access to Healthcare Stable supply of medicines in emergency situations
Improving global health
Others (rural areas, elderly people living alone, etc.)

Education and enlightenment regarding respect for human rights

Education regarding respect for human rights

Chugai established its Human Rights Policy based on “the corporate responsibility to respect human rights” set out in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). We also request all board members, employees and business partners to understand and cooperate with the prohibition of child labor and the protection of young workers based on the 10 principles in the Children’s Rights and Business Principles. In addition to respecting the human rights of employees, such as through the prohibition of discrimination and harassment in the workplace, respect for diversity, and health and safety, we have been conducting employee training on the importance of efforts regarding human rights issues, including respect for labor rights among stakeholders involved in our business activities and throughout the supply chain.

Education regarding respect for human rights

Call for slogans promoting human rights

As part of our human rights promotion efforts, Chugai Group solicits human rights slogans from employees and their families to raise awareness of human rights and provides them with opportunities to contemplate human rights. In 2023, we received 956 works (816 works in the Employee Section and 140 works in the Family Member Section). During Human Rights Week from December 4 to 10, the Excellent Work from each section is showcased on Chugai’s intranet website.

Participation in the Industrial Federation for Human Rights, Tokyo.

Chugai is a member of the Industrial Federation for Human Rights, Tokyo. It was founded in 1979 with the recognition that human rights are the foundation of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and with the aim of ensuring that each member company engages in internal training and that respect for human rights takes root in the corporate culture.

It consists of 122 companies as of April in 2023, mainly those headquartered in Tokyo. Its activities have helped to build a culture of respect for human rights in our company, and in fiscal 2022, Mr. Motoo Ueno, senior advisor, served as president of the association on behalf of member companies.

Human Rights Initiatives in Supply Chain

As part of our commitment to respect human rights of our business partners, we are affiliated with the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative (PSCI), a non-profit organization comprised of global pharmaceutical companies, and have formulated Chugai Group Supplier Code of Conduct, which sets forth the rules of conduct that Chugai Group wants our business partners to respect and comply with. When we enter into an agreement with a new business partner, we ask them to submit a written agreement explaining the purpose and outline of the agreement.

It requires respect and compliance with respect to ethics, labor, EHS, the environment and related management systems based on the “Pharmaceutical Industry Principles for Responsible Supply Chain Management * (Pharmaceutical Industry Principles for Responsible Supply Chain Management, hereinafter referred to as the “PSCI Principles”)” developed by PSCI.

In addition, we conduct audits of important business partners, require them to present corrective plans for any identified findings, and conduct regular monitoring.

Supply Chain Management

Status of the handling of consultations and whistleblower reports regarding human rights

At the Chugai Group, we have established a point of contact that allows all employees (including contract and temporary employees) to seek consultation on matters concerning the Code of Conduct, including respect for human rights, and to report violations and suspected violations of the Code of Conduct. Issues reported are investigated impartially and with strict confidentiality to find a solution while respecting the opinion of the person who made the report or consultation. Company rules prohibit retaliation or any other disadvantageous treatment of employees who seek consultation or make reports.

Any counseling or reporting made to the internal whistle-blowing system which needed the clarification of the details was all investigated. In the case of compliance violation, the disciplinary or other appropriate actions were taken. As a result of the investigation, three cases were subject to the disciplinary action in FY 2022.

Labor-Management Relations

In Chugai Group, the Chugai Workers’ Union has been formed and organized with the union member of 4,636 including Chugai Pharmaceutical and its domestic affiliated companies such as Chugai Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, Chugai Clinical Research Center, Chugai Business Solution and Chugai Research Institute for Medical Science as of the end of December in 2022. Regular meetings between the management and the union are held at various levels in keeping close communication and building upon cooperative, sound labor-management relations based on trust.

Response to the UK Modern Slavery Act

In response to the Modern Slavery Act that was enacted in the UK in 2015, our UK subsidiary published a Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking Statement as follows.

Engagement

Followed by 2020, in October 2021 we participated in the Business and Human Rights Conference (The 10th International Human Rights Conference in Tokyo) hosted by Caux Round Table Japan and held an individual dialogue with overseas experts as a satellite program to discuss the structure for addressing the human rights issues in terms of risk assessment and identification of the salient issues.

The dialogue focused on the way of approach to identify the salient human rights issues in the supply chain. At the discussion, the risk map on the potential human rights issues that Chugai tried to identify as a tool of the risk assessment was shared among experts and thereafter we received some opinions and pieces of advice on practical approaches for companies to further assess the risks before conducting the human rights due diligence to suppliers. The advice includes the methodologies and its processes on how to identify the salient human rights issues based on the results of the direct engagement between rights-holders and Chugai. Experts were made aware of and asked to evaluate Chugai’s supplier management efforts to date, and they indicated their expectation for due diligence to be incorporated into our corporate activities and put into practice in the future by taking into account the characteristics of our approach to human rights issues during audits.

We will continue our efforts to respect human rights based on the opinions obtained in the dialogue, and with regard to conducting human rights due diligence, we will require our business partners to also comply with laws and social norms.

Further, for five years since 2018, we have participated in the Stakeholder Engagement Program hosted by the Caux Round Table (CRT) Japan, taking part in the establishment of the “Human Rights Issues by Sector” through dialogue and collaboration with multiple stakeholders. At the same time, we are reviewing human rights issues related to our own business activities and conducting the human rights due diligence.

The Caux Round Table Japan Stakeholder Engagement Program(SHE)

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