Section 54 of the UK Modern Slavery Act of 2015 requires certain companies doing business in the UK to publish a statement on the efforts they have taken to prevent modern slavery from occurring within their business and their supply chains. In compliance with this act, Worldwide Clinical Trials Limited, on behalf of itself and its affiliates, publishes this statement for the current financial year ending December 31st, 2023.
Worldwide Clinical Trials (“Worldwide”) is a clinical research organization providing clinical development and bioanalytical services to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Worldwide is a global organization managing clinical trials in more than 60 countries.
Our policies reflect our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business dealings and relationships. Such policies implement and enforce effective systems and controls to ensure that the unfair exploitation of people is not taking place anywhere in our own business or in any of our supply chains.
Our selection of vendors is guided by our Vendor Relationship Management Policy and our Sourcing and Procurement Policy which include language prohibiting the use of vendors who exploit people unfairly. All Worldwide employees must comply with the company’s core values on ethical behavior as stated in our Code of Conduct, employment handbook, our Global Anti-Corruption Policy, and as reiterated in the annual trainings all employees must complete. These set forth Worldwide’s standards with respect to equal employment and non-discrimination, prohibitions against violence and harassment and protections for whistleblowers and reporting misconduct.
Worldwide promotes a culture of open communication which aims to foster an environment of transparency and progress. This philosophy encourages employees to participate in the overall growth and success of the company and, in return, provides multiple avenues to inform employees of Worldwide’s policies, procedures and progress.
Worldwide’s policies and procedures are formulated to help identify and assess potential risks that could result in the unfair exploitation or unethical treatment of people. They address the measures Worldwide has put in place to proactively minimize risks along with the escalation pathway when risks are identified.
As part of our ongoing risk assessment, we conduct due diligence prior to engaging with a vendor. As a part of our due diligence process, vendors are assessed and assigned a risk profile. Further due diligence is performed based on a vendor’s assigned risk profile and periodic reviews are completed to ensure our vendors are meeting our standards of high ethical business practices.
Critical risks that could be associated with the unethical treatment or in the unfair exploitation of people are escalated to our senior management for review and remedial action.
Training on our policies and ethical standards forms part of the induction process for all individuals who work for Worldwide. More targeted trainings are issued to individual teams providing guidance on risks specific to their department and tools for managing those risks. All employees undergo annual training and are issued new trainings relevant to their roles as needed.
Worldwide is committed to the eradication of modern slavery. Our Quality Management Counsel reviews our supply chain and vendors on a regular basis to ensure compliance with applicable law. Internal and external audits and inspections are conducted to confirm compliance with our corporate policies. We expect all employees, clients and vendors to adhere to the high ethical standards and business practices that are implemented at Worldwide. In furtherance of our commitment to eradicate the unfair exploitation of people from our supply chains, Worldwide will continue to engage in process improvement initiatives in order to effectively identify and address risks that may be associated with unethical treatment and modern slavery.