Respect for Human Rights

Respect for Human Rights
The Daiichi Sankyo Group Human Rights Policy
Human Rights Due Diligence
Initiatives for Respecting Human Rights

The Daiichi Sankyo Group of companies promotes respect for human rights in our business activities. The Daiichi Sankyo Group Corporate Conduct Charter specifies “respect for human rights” in article 4, “responsible procurement” in article 2, “respecting the diversity of our employees, seeking to include a diversity of thought in our daily work, and ensuring a healthy and safe working environment without harassment and discrimination” in article 5 and “executives of the Daiichi Sankyo Group actively build and maintain effective governance systems to implement this Charter, ensure it is understood by all Group companies, and encourage behavior based on the principles of this Charter to the business partners of Daiichi Sankyo Group.” in article 10.
At the same time, “to respect human rights of all people and comply with labor standards” is defined in the Daiichi Sankyo Group Employee Code of Conduct that specifies the principles by which all executives and employees are expected to conduct their work.

The Daiichi Sankyo Group Human Rights Policy

The Daiichi Sankyo Group Human Rights Policy was approved by the Board of Directors and established in June 2020. In this policy, we commit to respect international norms and principles, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the International Labour Organization’s (ILO’s) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work; and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Additionally, as a signatory of the United Nations Global Compact, Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. supports the principles covering human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption. We encourage all business partners, including suppliers, to follow this policy.
In addition to the United Nations Global Compact, we incorporate initiatives in our business regarding the human rights of children not only in the prohibition of child labor and the protection of young workers, but also in conducting research and development and clinical trials of pediatric formulations and vaccines in accordance with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the United Nations Children’s Rights and Business Principles.

Human Rights Due Diligence

Human Rights Management System

The Sustainability Committee, chaired by the Head of Global Corporate Strategy, is composed of the global heads of relevant functions such as human rights, procurement, human resources, compliance, and legal, as well as regional human rights officers, and has been established to promote and oversee human rights due diligence on a global scale. The Sustainability Committee reviews the results of human rights due diligence, identifies and responds to human rights risks, and monitors them, and the committee chair reports the results to the Executive Management Committee as necessary.

Salient Human Rights Issues

In the Human Rights Policy, we have identified salient human rights issues (high priority issues) for us, such as “improving access to health care”, “availability of pharmaceuticals”, “considerations for human rights in research and development”, “counterfeit drugs”, “protection of personal information”, “sustainable procurement”, “decent work”, “prevention of harassment”, “prohibition of child labor and forced labor”, “realization of appropriate occupational safety and health”, “freedom of association and respect for the right to collective bargaining”, “appropriate working hours and wages” and ” fair employment, compensation and development.”

We will continue to identify the need to review salient human rights issues through human rights risk assessments and communication with stakeholders.

Human Rights Risk Assessment

Since fiscal year 2020, we have been conducting surveys in the form of questionnaire on human rights due diligence for all companies in our Group that run own business operations. The assessment is conducted on a three-year cycle. We have completed the second assessment and are currently examining the survey results. We will continue to protect human rights by continuously assessing and responding to human rights risks.

Targets of the second human rights risk assessment survey
Target locations	Group companies in Japan and overseas
Number of locations	36 group companies

Survey items for the second human rights risk assessment
Item	Contents
Establishment of a human rights system	Establishment of a human rights due diligence system, Dissemination of human rights policies, Implementation of human rights training
Response to human rights issues	Forced labor and human trafficking^, Wages and employment contracts, Child labor^, Harassment and punishment, Discrimination^, Privacy, Freedom of association and collective bargaining rights^, Negative impact on local communities, Occupational health and safety^, Consideration of human rights in research and development, Long working hours ( Items related to the ILO Core Labor Standards)
Management	Stakeholder engagement, Establishment of internal reporting hotlines, Establishment of grievance mechanisms, Implementation of responsible procurement

Respect for Human Rights in Procurement

In its Business Partner Code of Conduct, the Group defines its expectations to business partners that provide products and services to us to comply with and respect various international norms, including human rights. We have been conducting a periodic Sustainable Procurement Survey based on this code. We also established an internal system to address issues that may be caused by business partners in fiscal year 2020.

Sustainable Procurement

Grievance Mechanism

Since May 2021, the Group has introduced a global whistleblowing hotline (Global Hotline) for compliance reporting. The hotline also accepts reports and questions including human rights related concerns from people inside and outside the company on the corporate websites.

Compliance Reporting System

Education and Awareness Raising

The Group recognizes the importance of deepening the awareness on the relationship between business activities and human rights for all executives and employees in order to fulfill our responsibility on respecting human rights. We are conducting various education and training programs related to human rights. In addition, a management message is delivered every year on December 10th, the World Human Rights Day.
The following training programs related to human rights were conducted in fiscal year 2022

CEO message on the World Human Rights Day
E-learning or training on human rights at major Group companies (total number of participants from all Group companies in Japan: approx. 9,500 people / 97%)

Collaboration and Dialogue

The Group considers it very important to obtain external opinions from outside the company and knowledge of best practices of other companies in promoting their human rights initiatives.
We participate in the Human Rights Due Diligence Working Group and the Human Rights Education Working Group of the Global Compact Network Japan, and through participation in lectures and workshops given by experts, we gain knowledge of the latest trends in human rights due diligence and examples of participating companies, which we use to promote respect for human rights within our Group.
In fiscal year 2023, Takashi Fukuoka, former Head of Global Corporate Strategy, attended the UNDP-organized CEO Round Table on Business and Human Rights.^*He exchanged opinions and deepened his knowledge with domestic and international experts, an institutional investor, as well as CEOs and executives of leading companies.

＊A round table session for companies’ top managements organized by UNDP（United Nations Development Programme）under the support of the Japanese government.

Participants of the session

Link： UNDP

Senior executives from leading Japanese companies join Round Table on Business and Human Rights in Tokyo

Initiatives for Respecting Human Rights

Our Initiatives to improve access to healthcare

The Group identified “improving Access to Healthcare” as one of our material issues. We are promoting various initiatives.

Contribution to the SDGs through Materiality on Business　Main Initiatives

Ethics in Clinical Trials

Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. has established the Global Policy of Clinical Trials Standards and conducts clinical trials in accordance with global standards in consideration of the human rights and safety of participants in clinical trials and based on high ethical and scientific standards.

Ethics in Clinical Trials

Collaboration with Contract Research Organizations