Compliance, Ethics & Transparency

The Grünenthal Code of Conduct sets out our commitment to the highest ethical standards. Everybody in our organisation has the responsibility to live up to these standards in their daily work. All employees sign the Code of Conduct when joining Grünenthal.

We are committed to ethical business practices, and we only work with business partners who uphold the same high standards. To ensure this, we established our Code of Conduct for Business Partners, which must be signed before formally entering into a partnership.

We encourage everyone to report any questions, doubts or suspicions they may have by contacting our Ethics Helpline. The confidential internet-based platform can be used 24/7, including by employees of our business partners or any other individual. Every complaint or concern is investigated by our Compliance organisation, and if the allegation refers to a potential substantial violation of human rights and/or environmental protection obligation, the Human Rights Officer shall directly undertake the investigation. We take appropriate action.

This Statement of Compliance with Human Rights and Environmental Standards elaborates on our commitment to creating a safe and respectful workplace for our people, while also minimising risks to the environment.

Grünenthal’s Charter on the Responsible Use of Opioids sets out our commitment to exploring and endorsing measures that minimise the risk of inappropriate and illegitimate use of prescription opioids – while striving to ensure that individual patients with a clear need for opioid-based pain relief are not denied access.

We are committed to conducting business in a legal, ethical and honest manner. We have a strict Anti-Corruption Policy, a Fair Market Value Tool and strict approval processes for transfers of value. These measures ensure that we do not tolerate corruption in any form.

We handle all personal data responsibly. We conduct all of our data processing activities in line with applicable legal standards such as the GDPR, and we also adhere to the principles laid out in our Digital Ethics Charter and Data Protection Policy.

We are committed to conducting our research activities in line with our strict Bio Ethics Framework. We adhere to clear rules for animal testing, human biological sampling and the use of other emerging technologies.

We share clinical information that is necessary for conducting legitimate research, serving patients’ safety and improving public health. We have publicly committed to the Principles for Responsible Clinical Trial Data Sharing that were issued in January 2014 by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).

We are committed to publishing information about our collaboration with healthcare professionals (HCPs), healthcare organisations (HCOs) and Patient Organizations (POs) to demonstrate that we interact with these stakeholders ethically and transparently. The mode of disclosure may vary from country to country. Every Grünenthal affiliate that makes any transfers of value to these parties will disclose these values in line with local regulations and guidelines from local industry associations.