How we see our responsibility
Having pictured the way in which Crucell sees itself and how it operates at large, we now would like to elaborate on what we do in the field of CSR in three areas: people, planet, and profit. Crucell’s impact on the planet is relatively modest, but we do take our environmental footprint seriously.
Social aspects of our business
Crucell’s work revolves around people. We value our role as employer and aim to conduct our activities in a manner that both improves the capabilities and performance of our people, and results in safe products of the best possible quality.
Our people
Crucell has grown rapidly over the past few years. The Netherlands-based company acquired Swiss Berna Biotech early in 2006, and later in the year further strengthened its presence in the vaccine industry by acquiring US-based Berna Products and Sweden’s SBL Vaccines.
Employing talented people with the right mind-set is something to be proud of, but no reason to be complacent. During our period of rapid growth, we set up special programs focusing on talent management, succession planning and remuneration, in order to retain and further develop the best people in each area of our business. Part of the development of our employees is to raise their awareness of the impact of our products and the need for them across the globe.
As described earlier, Crucell’s operations are governed by the six Crucell Values that have been defined by a cross-section of employees from different functions and sites, together with Crucell’s Management Board. These Values are a crucial component of our leadership development programs, which were introduced in 2008. Crucell managers worldwide have participated in these programs, which reflect and reinforce our company values. The Crucell Values have also been incorporated into our employees’ performance review and coupled to remuneration decisions, thereby creating a solid incentive for our people to behave in accordance with the standards that have been defined. Crucell hopes that this approach will also have a positive effect on the way our employees behave in daily life and society at large.
Besides promoting adherence to the Crucell values, we want to create true corporate ownership among Crucell employees. For this reason, when The Crucell Ambition program was launched in 2008, employees representing different parts of the company were brought together in teams to help define the best way forward in a number of strategic business areas. Since the introduction of The Crucell Ambition strategic program, monthly questionnaires have been sent to groups of randomly selected employees worldwide, asking them for feedback on the progress made with implementation of our global strategy, and further improvements needed in the organization. For more information on The Crucell Ambition program, see page 12 of the Annual Report.
Another example of employee ownership in Crucell is the system of stock options employees can receive in remuneration for services rendered to the company. In this way, Crucell employees can receive a tangible share of the business for investing their talents and efforts in the success of the company. Approximately 6.4 million of outstanding options are held by Crucell employees of which 1.7 million by the Executive Board.
Number of nationalities per Crucell facility in 2008
Male/female ratio of Crucell employees in 2008
Safety
Ensuring the safety of Crucell’s employees is of the utmost importance. Because the biotechnology business potentially involves exposure to hazardous substances, all employees working in laboratories are trained in bio-safety procedures and regulations. Primarily, this training focuses on standard operating procedures (SOPs and work instructions), which generally include specific safety precautions. When necessary, Crucell facilitates employee participation in additional training by external organizations.
The total number of reported incidents that occurred in 2008 is limited to 34 cases at Crucell sites where product manufacturing and/or development takes place. More than 90% of our employees work in these facilities. The accidents vary in severity, but are mostly relatively minor and generic in nature, such as a sprained ankle caused by slipping in a wet hallway. Continuous improvement of accident prevention and of the accident reporting system is a priority, and Crucell aims to report accurate and levelled numbers for the whole organization in the years to come.
In an important new safety initiative, Crucell started the roll-out of global systems for risk and crisis management in 2008. By raising employee’s awareness of possible risks and establishing a systematic consolidation and escalation approach to their management, the program provides a basis for prioritization of preventive activities and resource allocation within Crucell, and aims to enable any potential crises that might occur to be resolved with optimal speed and efficiency. A well-defined structure with clearly defined responsibilities ensures that everyone in the organization knows how to respond in a potentially unsafe situation so that harms are avoided or minimized.
Our Consumers
Crucell’s core business is protecting people from illness and death caused by infectious diseases. We have described our product range in the section ‘What we do’. In addition to our marketed products, we have a broad pipeline of candidate products at various stages of research and development. Details can be found on page 26 of the 2008 Annual Report.
Crucell products are characterized by their outstanding quality and safety. Medical products – such as vaccines and antibodies – that are used in healthy people to prevent illness have to meet even higher regulatory standards of quality and safety than apply to medicines for treating the sick. Crucell does not simply comply with these stringent regulatory requirements; we surpass them. The products we sell are thoroughly monitored, reviewed and evaluated to the highest standards both during development and following commercialization. Regular inspections of our facilities, procedures and products by external authorities, as required in our highly regulated business, provide our consumers with a further guarantee of safety and quality.
More fundamentally, Crucell’s focus on product safety, quality and convenience determines the innovative design and unique properties of our products. For example, our hepatitis A vaccine Epaxal® is based on virosome technology, a revolutionary adjuvant system that combines high efficacy with unprecedented safety. As a result, Epaxal® is the only hepatitis A vaccine on the market that is free of aluminum, a vaccine adjuvant (efficacy enhancer) that is commonly used but raises some safety concerns.