Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the concept of fair and ethical business conduct, needs to be at the heart of business policy in the developing healthcare sector in the Middle East, a leading speaker stressed at a recent summit in Dubai on this critical issue. 

A range of developments – including the opening of new healthcare “cities” in countries across the region and increasing interest in biotechnology – is driving the pace of change in the regional healthcare sector, said Liz MacGillivray, head of marketing and sales, Novartis Pharma at the Second Middle East Corporate Social Responsibility Summit in Dubai.
However, because of the significant impact that healthcare companies can have upon the societies they operate in, there is strong interest across in the Middle East in ensuring that companies continue to develop and deliver their treatments in an environmentally friendly and socially conscious manner, she said.
MacGillivray observed that pharmaceutical companies and healthcare providers had a direct affect upon the lives of people in the societies they operated, and consequently their activities were subject to “understandable scrutiny.”
She argued that if there was to be continued growth and development in this area, then it was the responsibility of the companies themselves to ensure that they abided by core principles of corporate social responsibility.
“This means that companies in the Middle East must be open and accountable regarding clinical trials; preserve the environment through clean, clear techniques; maintain fair wages and working hours for our employees; and focus on the unmet need in prioritising our research for new cures and treatments,” she said.
Pharmaceutical companies have already pledged huge amounts of money in philanthropic donations. Indeed between 1998 and 2002, contributions from the world’s 10 largest pharmaceutical companies for health-related programmes in the least developed countries totaled $2.2 billion.
However, MacGillivray told her audience at the summit that large donations were not enough.
“For pharmaceutical companies, CSR goes way beyond philanthropy, and should inform our day-to-day working practice. Our mission is to extend and improve lives through innovative research and constant ambition. To achieve our mission, we must maintain a committed workforce, and a code of ethics, which prioritises empathy and rationality. The pharmaceutical industry is founded on trust, and we must preserve and encourage trust at all times,” she said.
Novartis has already made great progress in its CSR policy, having introduced pioneering initiatives such as the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development and the Novartis CareCard, and opened Access to Medicine projects around the world, providing affordable access to a variety of its trademark drugs.
In 2004, the Novartis Group invested approximately $4.2 billion in R&D. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, the group employs about 81,400 people and operates in over 140 countries around the world.
The summit featured a number of speakers from the healthcare sector. It was designed to show attendees the necessary steps to designing and implementing an ethics management programme.