At Janssen, we consider it important to act fairly and transparently. Our Health Care Compliance department is there to make sure that every action of Janssen is ethical and that we act with integrity: what we do, why we do so, what we pay, and to whom we pay. That is important not only for patients’ trust, but also for justice worldwide. Health Care Compliance Manager Evgenia Taratynova and Health Care Compliance Officer Revital Hoek explain how we put this into practice.

Honesty and transparency

We work together with health care professionals - such as doctors and pharmacists - and health organizations, to share knowledge and information about our products or to get their professional consulting and other services. This sometimes raises critical questions, such as 'What's behind the collaboration? What is the business interest? What do they get in return?' "To make sure we contribute to a humanity’s health and retain the trust of our patients, we must be able to guarantee that we do not improperly influence health care professionals and organizations in their choice of products and treatments. This is what we are committed to doing on a daily basis," Revital says.

At Janssen, this goes beyond mere compliance with the laws & regulations. We have internal guidelines and rules that are even stricter, because themes such as fairness, business integrity and transparency are also ethical themes. Those are woven into our credo: our own global code of conduct: doing the right thing for patients, but also for the environment we are all living in. Evgenia explains: ''If something is allowed by law, but doesn't feel right from the business integrity perspective, we don't do it and we expect the same from all our business partners''.

Health Care Compliance

To fulfill this ambition, the Health Care Compliance team undertakes various actions:

• At the micro level, the team integrates business integrity principles into Janssen’s operations and in interactions with business partners, allowing for greater transparency and accountability.

• At the macro level, the teams contributes to the development and implementation of international norms and standards. For instance, they have supported codes of ethics of various trade associations on the local, regional, and international levels.

• They publish all financial transactions to health care professionals, hospitals and patient organizations; not only to comply with current legislation, but also to be transparent to patients and the general public. ''You can look up online how much your doctor has received from a pharmaceutical company. Searching can be done by name, which makes it very accessible'', says Evgenia.

In addition, the Health Care Compliance team examines whether collaborations have honest intentions, with the aim of ruling out corruption. ''This means that we systematically assess requests, such as sponsorship of a congress or training of a physician group, for compliance with current legislation and with our own guidelines and regulations'', explains Revital. ''And we also have our Credo Integrity Line'', Evgenia adds. ''Where colleagues or even our customers and business partners can report anonymously any activities known or believed to be in violation of Johnson & Johnson policies or current legislation.''

Impact

Revital and Evgenia are also committed to integrating these values and ways of thinking within Janssen. They organize training courses for colleagues and constantly communicate about the importance of health care compliance and business integrity. ''We actually strive to empower our colleagues with the tools and resources to do the right thing,” Revital explains. ''In the end, health care compliance is about doing the right things in the right way for all of our stakeholders.

Other sustainability initiatives

Health Care Compliance is just one example of Janssen's commitment to a sustainable world. Want to know how we are committed to the other Sustainable Development Goals? Find out here!