Better Health for All
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AstraZeneca's core business is developing life-changing medicines in oncology, rare diseases, respiratory, and cardiovascular care
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, with an aim to launch at least 20 new medicines by 2030
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and positively impact 1 billion people by 2030.
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The company's AZ&Me™ Prescription Savings Program assisted over 4.5 million patients in the US and Puerto Rico over a 10-year period (2007-2017)
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, and it made $4,778.9 million in product donations through patient access programs.
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AstraZeneca has reached 90.5 million people through access to healthcare programs since 2018
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, including over 19 million young people through the Young Health Programme in 41 countries.
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The company provides transparency about where its patents are filed and enforced
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, and publicly discloses outcomes of access activities.
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AstraZeneca invested $3.5 billion in US R&D and manufacturing by the end of 2026.
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It achieved a 67.6% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions since 2015
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and planted over 19.9 million trees since 2020.
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The company committed over $15 million to 53 nonprofits for health equity programs
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and trained 156,810 healthcare workers since 2010.
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The Young Health Programme, active in 41 countries, focuses on prevention.
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AstraZeneca has a Global Privacy Standard and Global Standard on the Ethical Use of AI
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, completing 2,344 privacy impact assessments.
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It provided $11.2 million in disaster relief and public health responses in 2024.
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The company supports employee mental health through flexible working and access to services.
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AstraZeneca does not file patent applications in low-income or least-developed countries
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and co-founded the WIPO Re:Search initiative in 2011.
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It invests in STEM education
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and aims to improve diversity in clinical trial participants
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, sharing 270 studies with external research teams.
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Fair Money & Economic Opportunity
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AstraZeneca PLC is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, manufacturing, and commercializing prescription medicines.
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Its core business does not involve lending, insuring, moving, or storing money for consumers.
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Therefore, all KPIs related to financial services, such as pricing fairness, exploitative fees, financial inclusion initiatives, customer financial data accessibility, fair lending compliance, wealth-building outcomes, financial literacy programs, customer debt burden, geographic inclusion for banking services, or financial product simplicity, are not applicable to the company's operations.
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Fair Pay & Worker Respect
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AstraZeneca's CEO to median employee pay ratio was 182:1 for the financial year ending December 31, 2023.
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Approximately 64% of the workforce is covered by collective bargaining agreements.
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The total reportable injury rate (per million hours worked) for employees was 0.72 in 2023, with zero employee or contractor fatalities in 2022 and 2023.
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The median hourly gender pay gap in the UK was 6.8% in 2024, and the mean bonus pay gap was 26.9%.
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Women represent 50.6% of senior middle management roles and above.
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Employee perception of AstraZeneca as a 'Great Place to Work' was 86% in 2023.
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Voluntary employee turnover for the total workforce was 7.5% in 2023.
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In 2024, audits identified critical issues with labor standards, including excessive working time, failure to ensure weekly rest periods, and not paying overtime in line with local legislation.
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The company settled a prior case in 2021 for $560,000 to 318 employees for race and gender-based pay discrimination allegations covering October 2015 to September 2016.
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A court also allowed three female sales representatives to proceed with a potential collective action lawsuit alleging gender-based pay discrimination.
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Fair Trade & Ethical Sourcing
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AstraZeneca conducts supplier audits, with re-audits occurring within 12 months for critical findings and up to 3 years where no critical findings are identified.
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The company reported that single-use gloves potentially manufactured using forced or bonded labour were previously in use within the organization for three months.
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In 2023, a third party was accused of connections with forced labour.
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However, no substantiated cases of modern slavery were uncovered in 2024 through due diligence processes, and no indications of child labour were observed in 2023 or 2024 in AstraZeneca AG.
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The company is working to improve supply chain transparency, particularly for raw materials and single-use gloves, but specific multi-tier traceability coverage is not quantified.
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All suppliers are required to comply with AstraZeneca's Code of Conduct for Third Parties and Global Standard on Expectations of Third Parties, and modern slavery clauses are incorporated into contracts.
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Raw materials sourcing and indirect supply chains, including facilities management, capital projects, consumables, and excipients for manufacturing, are identified as high-risk areas for modern slavery.
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Honest & Fair Business
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AstraZeneca PLC received an S&P Global ESG Score of 75 as of November 21, 2025.
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The company has a formal whistle-blower policy, encouraging employees and third parties to report concerns via the AZ Ethics helpline and website, which is managed by an independent third party and available 24/7, with a commitment to no retaliation.
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The Code of Ethics and Finance Code also ask employees to report possible violations, and the company ensures the same level of protection regardless of the reporting means.
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However, the effectiveness of the program is not publicly measured. The company reported that changes in data subscriptions, exchange rates, subscription coverage, and restated IQVIA data led to the restatement of total market values for prior years.
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In 2024, 59 audits were conducted on high-risk commercial suppliers and 53 internal quality audits of AstraZeneca sites.
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The company has an MSCI ESG Ratings assessment of AA and an ESG Risk Score of 0.5.
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The majority of the Board consists of independent Non-Executive Directors, and a formal system is in place for Directors to declare conflicts of interest.
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AstraZeneca has a comprehensive Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption Global Standard, complemented by additional Global Standards and local requirements, with mandatory ABAC principles, training for employees, monitoring, audits of compliance, risk assessments, and due diligence for third parties.
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Bureau Veritas UK Limited provided limited assurance over sustainability disclosures in the 2024 Annual Report & Form 20-F Information, covering business conduct, anti-bribery, anti-corruption, and supplier management.
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Kind to Animals
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AstraZeneca is committed to the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement) and applies a global standard for animal welfare, with 100% of staff working with animals appropriately trained.
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The company's Bioethics Policy requires careful consideration and justification for animal research, prioritizing animal welfare.
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AstraZeneca prohibits the use of wild-caught primates and great ape species.
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The company invests in and leverages advanced New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) such as organoids, microphysiological systems (organ-on-a-chip), AI, and computer modeling at various stages of drug discovery, and actively evaluates stem cell technologies.
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AstraZeneca prefers facilities accredited by AAALAC International and states that wherever possible, work is conducted in such facilities.
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The Council for Science and Animal Welfare (C-SAW) oversees animal welfare and compliance.
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However, animal testing is still conducted, with 219,102 animals used in 2016, and 141,947 in-house plus 63,810 in contract research in 2024, totaling 205,757 animals.
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Over 97% of animals used are rodents or fish.
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In 2016, 66 high-risk supplier audits were conducted, with 32% meeting expectations and 42% implementing improvement plans.
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AstraZeneca is a signatory to the Concordat on Openness on Animal Research in the UK and contributes to similar initiatives in Australia/New Zealand and the U.S.
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They are founding members of the European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing (EPAA) and collaborate with other pharmaceutical companies to accelerate NAM adoption, including the IQ Consortium's IQ MPS Affiliate.
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The company does not provide specific data on its R&D budget allocation for animal-free technologies.
No War, No Weapons
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AstraZeneca's 2024 Annual Report indicates that dual-use screen count is not applicable, suggesting no dual-use products are developed or sold.
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The company aligns with the World Health Organisation (WHO) Guideline for Medicines Donation (Revised 2010) and is a member of the Partnership for Quality Medical Donations (PQMD), demonstrating adherence to high humanitarian procurement standards.
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AstraZeneca's 2024 Annual Report also mentions alignment with the UN Global Compact and UN Women’s Empowerment Principles.
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In February 2024, AstraZeneca's annual review for 2023 found no conflict minerals in its product portfolio, and the company requires suppliers to comply with applicable laws and regulations regarding conflict minerals, achieving 100% conflict-free materials with continuous verification.
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No evidence was found regarding revenue from arms contracts, sales to embargoed regimes, or direct peacebuilding investment as a proportion of revenue.
Planet-Friendly Business
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AstraZeneca's climate targets are verified by the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) to a 1.5°C pathway, aiming to halve its entire value chain footprint by 2030 and achieve a 90% reduction by 2045 for net zero.
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In 2024, 97% of the company's electricity consumption from sites was from renewable sources.
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Water use within site water footprint (excluding non-contact cooling water) in 2024 was 3.44 million m³.
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The company's total revenue in 2023 was $45.811 billion, resulting in a water use per revenue of approximately 75.09 m³ per $1 million. In 2024, the total recycling as a percentage of total waste was 41%.
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AstraZeneca has a stated net-zero target year of 2045.
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In 2024, the company reported zero environmental prosecutions, zero financial penalties, one enforcement action, three regulatory warnings/alerts, and two other environmental compliance matters.
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In 2024, 1.97% of water consumption was in medium and high scarcity areas.
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The AZ Forest program aims to plant 200 million trees across six continents by 2030, restoring over 100,000 hectares of land.
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The company has invested over $1 billion to support the transition to net zero and $400 million in the AZ Forest program.
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The company promotes efficient, circular use of resources and integrates sustainable sourcing to prevent land use change and deforestation, but no formal policy implementation percentage is provided.
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AstraZeneca aims for 95% of suppliers by spend to have SBTi targets, and 25% of suppliers by spend had SBTi targets in 2024.
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Respect for Cultures & Communities
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AstraZeneca has over 20 formal partnerships with local community groups, including co-designing AZ Forest reforestation projects with local communities and indigenous knowledge-holders across multiple countries, and strategic collaborations with 40 national organizations.
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Formal grievance mechanisms are available to employees and third parties, including via the AZethics helpline and website, which are available in multiple languages.
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Local people and communities are involved in co-designing AZ Forest reforestation projects.
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The company's Healthy Minds app provides mental health support in 24 languages, and the Community Solutions Challenge supports programs prioritizing linguistic needs.
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In 2024, 100% of active employees completed mandatory annual training on the Code of Ethics, which addresses discrimination based on protected characteristics.
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Safe & Smart Tech
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AstraZeneca has introduced work around responsible AI and AI ethics, integrating AI governance within its enterprise data governance framework.
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It has an AI Governance Framework, Risk Framework, and Playbook, along with Data and AI Ethics Principles.
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The company states it can explain when and how AI is used to aid decisions impacting humans, and that algorithms are appropriately documented.
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It endeavors to use robust, inclusive datasets and monitors AI systems for fairness.
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Users have rights to access, correct, delete, object to processing, and data portability.
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AstraZeneca states it respects privacy and control, and aims to comply with privacy and data protection laws globally.
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It also emphasizes mitigating potential harms from AI and has a Global Privacy Standard that sets requirements for processing personal data.
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Zero Waste & Sustainable Products
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AstraZeneca aims to reduce waste by 20% by the end of 2025 from a 2015 baseline, representing a company-wide waste reduction target with a timeline.
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The company is integrating circular approaches into medicine discovery, development, and delivery across its value chain, and introduced a new internal metric in 2023 to measure waste circularity across sites.
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Several waste reduction initiatives are in place, including the Coppell, Texas site reducing landfill waste by approximately 80% by repurposing silica waste, and the Södertälje, Sweden site recovering 5 GWh annually from wastewater heat since 2023.
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The Gothenburg, Sweden site recycles and reuses 90-95% of its liquid helium.
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One R&D site has achieved Platinum Level TRUE zero waste certification.
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The company is partnering with Vanguard Renewables to power US sites with biomethane from food waste and dairy manure, aiming to supply up to 36% of global gas consumption with biomethane by 2026.
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