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Astrazeneca and Csr Essay

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In this essay I am going to look at AstraZeneca PLC one of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies. By describing several relevant cases and commenting on them I will try to evaluate the extent to which the Company acts under the principles framing its corporate governance and corporate social responsibility policies.

To give brief overview, AstraZeneca PLC, formed on April 6, 1999, by the merger of British Zeneca Group PLC and Swedish Astra AB, is one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world. It is well illustrated by some key facts listed on the Company’s website:

“Our products are available in over 100 countries; sales in 2005 totalled $24 billion, with an operating profit of $6.5 billion; we spend over $14 million …show more content…

The Company has established a global community support database, which allows to share relevant information among the Company’s branches, and to monitor financial information. The database also helps AstraZeneca to make sure that right proportions of money are allocated to each initiative the Company contributes to. Usually, the biggest donations go to healthcare and science & education sponsorships. As the Company tries to contribute to disaster relief efforts; however, the proportions of money donated to those initiatives may change; e.g. in 2005 the more money were donated to help those, who were affected by the earthquake in Pakistan and by Hurricane Katrina in the US.

Pie chart © AstraZeneca, 2006

If asked about the motives behind the participation in community support activities, AstraZeneca most likely would say something about its wish to contribute to the local communities’ well-being. One may get such impression from various statements on people being valuable assets, that the Company keeps on making. However, several cases of AstraZeneca’s past behaviour might suggest the Company having rather different scale of virtues…

To introduce first case, In June, 2003, Wilmington-based AstraZeneca’s

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