Governance, Ethics & Compliance

Our integrity is based on decisions – large and small – that our employees at every level of the company make each day. Our decisions are guided by our values, a sense of ethics and respect for the law. To support our commitment to ethical conduct and compliance with the law, we have a long-standing ethics and compliance program.

Our program is built on seven key tenets:

• Providing strong ethics and compliance leadership
• Clearly articulating our standards
• Encouraging communication
• Increasing awareness through training
• Delivering accountability
• Providing timely assessment
• Delivering prompt remediation

To ensure that every employee conducts Abbott’s business according to the highest ethical and legal standards, the company has developed the Abbott Code of Business Conduct and a comprehensive Compliance Program.

To successfully drive the Compliance Program, a collaborative team — the Affiliate Compliance Committee — has been formed in every Abbott affiliate worldwide.  Members of Abbott’s local Compliance Committee include a Compliance Manager, the Director of Human Resources and the leaders from each of its businesses in Australia & New Zealand.

Training is conducted annually for all employees on Abbott’s Code of Business Conduct. Local policies and procedures have been developed to ensure we meet Abbott’s high ethical standards and operate fully within Australian and New Zealand regulations.

Two-way communication is also key to a successful ethics and compliance program — which is why our program includes a telephone and web-based hotline available around the clock. We analyse each allegation, take corrective action where warranted and use tracking tools that allow us to spot trends and respond to them as need be.