Global Citizenship

At Abbott, we believe that good citizenship is embodied in every aspect of our business, including the products we make and how we market them. It is reflected in how we advance patient access to health care, how we ensure a safe workplace, how we utilise natural resources, how we hire, develop and treat our employees and more. We view our commitment to global citizenship not only as a business responsibility, but also as an opportunity to improve lives around the world.

Because the demands of good citizenship are always evolving, we constantly reassess our obligations and opportunities and continue to develop our strategies, processes and methodologies. In 2008, we continued to evolve our strategic framework for our citizenship activities, identifying four areas where we can have the greatest impact.

• Innovating for the future — working to harness our core strengths as an innovator by developing products that meet the specific needs of developed, developing and emerging markets.

• Enhancing access — making medicines and health care more accessible and affordable through our own policies and wider engagement and investment with health care partners around the world. In 2008, we assisted more than 155,000 patients with donated and discounted Abbott products valued at more than $255 million through our patient assistance programs.

• Protecting patients and consumer safety — putting patient safety and well-being at the heart of everything we do.

• Safeguarding the environment — addressing the challenges of global climate change and water scarcity, while minimising the environmental impact of our products and our daily business activities.

Abbott Global AIDS Care

UNAIDS estimates that more than 38 million people were living with HIV/AIDS around the world at the end of 2005. Given the tremendous need for action, everyone has a role in the global battle against this disease.

For more than 20 years, Abbott has made a significant contribution to the fight against HIV/AIDS through the development of innovative tests and medicines. Building on this history, Abbott and the Abbott Fund have invested more than $100 million to advance HIV testing, treatment and support services in developing countries through Abbott Global AIDS Care programs. Working together with local and international partners, Abbott is improving the lives of people affected by HIV/AIDS through programs targeting critical areas of need in developing countries.

Abbott Global AIDS Care is an extension of Abbott’s commitment to global citizenship, which informs how our company advances our business objectives, engages our stakeholders, implements our policies, applies our social investment and philanthropy, and exercises our influence to make a productive contribution to society.

Did you know that Abbott…?

• Has distributed more than 100 million rapid HIV/AIDS tests at no profit or free of charge

• Served more than 700,000 children and families impacted by AIDS

• Improved HIV services at more than 90 sites across Tanzania, including building a new treatment centre and clinical laboratories at the country’s largest hospital

• Undertaken modernisation of all 23 regional hospital laboratories in Tanzania

• Supported a model paediatric HIV treatment program that reduced mortality rates by 90 per cent; this model is now being expanded across Africa

Commitment to Child Nutrition

At Abbott, we are committed to the nutritional health and wellbeing of children and families. We want to do our part to ensure that parents receive the information and support they need to feed their children successfully.

Abbott has an 80-year tradition of advancing nutrition science. Abbott’s nutrition research and development efforts focus on innovative solutions encompassing every life stage – from ensuring babies have a strong start to addressing the unique dietary needs of patients with serious illnesses.

Children in Vietnam are afflicted with some of the most severe forms of malnutrition. To help improve the nutritional health of these children Abbott and the Abbott Fund are helping address paediatric malnutrition in rural areas through expansion of nutrition education and supplement programs for school children, training and community education.

To help improve the nutritional health of these children, the Abbott Fund has formed a partnership with AmeriCares to support the expansion of Giao Diem’s Soymilk Nutritional Supplement Program, a highly successful initiative aimed at addressing nutritional health early in life.

The two leading causes of paediatric malnutrition in Vietnam are limited access to nourishing food and lack of nutritional education. The Soymilk Nutritional Supplement Program works with local elementary schools to educate teachers and caretakers about good nutrition and uses local resources to support the nutritional needs of children enrolled in the program.

After only ten months of the program commencing, the children had made some striking progress. The percentage of underweight participants declined by 41 per cent to 14 per cent, while rates of anaemia declined from 51 per cent to 9 per cent.

Safeguarding the Environment

Abbott has a longstanding commitment to minimise its impact on the global environment – in our sourcing of raw materials, in the manufacturing and distribution of our products and in the ways consumers use and dispose of them. In every product that we make, in every service we provide and in every market we serve, we strive to be good stewards of the earth and its resources.

We have identified climate change, water use and product stewardship as our most significant environmental impacts and we treat them as strategic priorities. At the same time we continue to manage the eco-efficiency of our many manufacturing sites around the world as well as protecting the health and safety of our employees. We have an Environment, Health and Safety Policy and Management system to underpin this work.

Did you know that Abbott…?

• Was the first and only Fortune 500 company to commit to going ‘carbon neutral’ with the entire U.S. sales fleet of vehicles.

• Is saving 1 billion gallons of water annually since launching a comprehensive, global effort in 2004 to preserve natural resources through reducing use of water in the production of its nutrition and other health care products.