Engaging with patients, caregivers and patient organisations helps us understand what it is like to live with a disease, the challenges facing patients and their families, and the role that diagnostics and treatments play in managing disease. This is invaluable in developing new products and in co-developing education and training materials.

We support a range of patient organisations globally and publish reports on those activities. Our support includes providing access to balanced, accurate and easy-to-understand scientific information about available medicines and services. We also conduct patient support meetings.

The Roche Patient Platform provides information on diseases, clinical studies and results of completed trials that may be of interest to patients, caregivers and physicians. The platform is available in a number of countries. Contents are in local language and written in such a way, that laymen can understand them.

While these interactions are among the most meaningful for our mission, they are also among the most stringently regulated. Our position on working with patient groups help us to maintain transparency in all our activities and to respect the independence of patient organisations.

For further information please see supporting patient organisations, clinical trials and patient safety.

Our employees are fundamental to our innovation-driven culture and to our purpose of doing now what patients need next. Employee engagement includes:

• newsletters highlighting topics of interest sent by employees

• town hall meetings with senior management

• lunch talks and Q&As with senior management and executives

• regular performance reviews to discuss career goals and development opportunities

• global employee surveys

Over a third of our employees are members of work councils or other similar organisations. These bodies provide a structured and transparent avenue for negotiating and engaging with employees.

Healthcare professionals provide input in several areas of our business, including:

• the development of product profiles

• clinical development plans

• regulatory filing strategies

• disease awareness plans

• initial treatment guidelines

We maintain high marketing standards while engaging with healthcare professionals so that our medicines and diagnostic products are prescribed and administered correctly and that patients understand the benefits and risks of our products.

We engage with healthcare professionals by:

• gathering real-world product-performance information from clinicians and patients for use internally and in clinical development

• conducting education and development programmes for opinion leaders

• participating in advisory boards with opinion leaders to gather feedback on our development programmes

• developing disease-management programmes with managed-care agencies

• taking part in health-awareness programmes with government departments

• supporting and educating caregivers.

We engage with public and private payers as well as Health Technology Assessment agencies to provide comprehensive clinical and economic evidence that demonstrates how our products can help people. See our position paper on Health Technology Assessment. We employ health economists to work in partnership with local health authorities to address access to medicines and analyse the costs of a product throughout its life.

Health technology assessments have become increasingly sophisticated and widespread, as more and more countries adopt systems to assess the medical and economic value of medicines.

We collaborate with various authorities and policy makers and actively contribute to health technology assessments. Our aim is to sustain medical innovation to meet medical needs and address the mounting pressure on healthcare budgets.

We engage in regular dialogue with regulatory bodies such as the FDA, EMA, sFDA, during drug development (through specific milestone meetings such as end of phase I, phase II, pre-NDA meetings and Scientific Advice), during NDA (New Drug Application) and MAA (Marketing Authorisation Application) filings and post-approval product related interactions.

As well as these product-specific interactions, we also engage in other forms of interactions and dialogue with regulators through non-product meetings, forums, advisory panel meetings and conferences. We help shape debate on developing effective policies, regulations and regulatory guidelines. For example, we are working closely with regulatory bodies in many countries over approval standards for biosimilars.

We believe it is our duty to contribute constructively and fairly to the public debate on a variety of healthcare issues. Our expertise and knowledge enables us to inform and advise regulators and other government authorities on high-priority issues such as:

• research and development of pharmaceuticals

• innovation in healthcare

• access to healthcare, particularly in developing countries

We are convinced that a proactive, transparent and responsible engagement between government officials and the private sector is fundamental to good public governance. Such interaction can make a significant contribution to a healthy democratic process, providing a necessary link between business, policymakers and civil society.

We have established good practice guidelines for our relationships with government officials. We expect any contractor or agency working for or on behalf of Roche to fully abide by these guidelines when engaging with government officials.

We work closely with business and industry associations to help ensure the legal, regulatory and political environment in which we operate represents a variety of viewpoints.

Roche is represented at a senior level in the following organisations:

European Roundtable of Industrialists (ERT)

economiesuisse

SwissHoldings

European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA)

International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations (IFPMA)

Emerging Biopharmaceutical Enterprises (EBE)

Biotechnology Industry Association of America (BIO)

Interpharma

Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed)

Japanese Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (JPMA)

Roche also acknowledges the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and recognises and follows the UN Global Compact and the International Organization for Standardization guidance on social responsibility (ISO 26000).

We have long standing associations with several non-profit and non-governmental organisations, including funding agencies, that aim to tackle issues such as health inequalities and access to diagnostics and medicines. We work collaboratively and often in partnership with these groups. Jointly-developed solutions usually result in informed decisions and solutions that are more likely to succeed.

We work with organisations such as:

WHO

UNICEF

Greenpeace

Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative

European Coalition of Positive People

World Diabetes Foundation

International Committee of the Red Cross

We contribute to these relationships by providing human resources, technical services, expertise and, occasionally, funding.

We strive to be a strategic partner and positive force in our local communities. We encourage employees to identify local projects where we can make a valuable contribution by volunteering or fundraising. These projects are generally managed locally.

See supporting communities for more information.

We actively engage with fund managers, individual investors, analysts and other members of the investment community. We use a variety of communication channels and methods to explain our business model and strategy for creating long-term value. We publish an annual report to communicate with shareholders and other stakeholders, and hold an annual general meeting, which provides a forum for discussion and debate with shareholders.

The growing importance of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues has driven demand for communication that explains our business model and sustainability initiatives. We measure the effectiveness of this communication, and our engagement with socially responsible investors, through inclusion in indices such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and FTSE4Good Index. See the investors section for more information.

Our relationships with suppliers are governed by our supplier code of conduct. These guidelines, which conform to international ethical standards, set out the conduct we expect from our suppliers in areas such as:

• economic sustainability

• environmental sustainability

• social responsibility

We work with suppliers to implement any required improvements in these areas by:

• sharing our expertise and documentation

• auditing and working with them to improve areas of concern

• running workshops and providing training