West Joins Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative

West is pleased to announce that it has joined the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative (PSCI). PSCI is a group of major pharmaceutical companies, all of which are West customers, that formed to “support pharmaceutical suppliers in efforts to operate in a manner consistent with industry expectations about ethics, labor, health and safety, environment and management systems.” PSCI members believe that through the application of principles for responsible supply chain management, better social, economic and environmental outcomes will result for all involved in the pharmaceutical supply chain. This includes improved conditions for workers, economic development and a cleaner environment for local communities.

At present, 17 companies have joined PSCI. West is the first pharmaceutical supplier to be invited to join.

“The idea of PSCI is that all member companies have requirements to audit suppliers in these non-traditional areas. Rather than each customer sending out individual auditors to every supplier facility, a single, third-party entity approved by PSCI will conduct audits that will be accepted by the full membership,” said Gary Wilson, Vice President, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability. “PSCI membership benefits West in that we only have one audit per site, and benefits the industry in that one audit can serve multiple companies’ requirements.”

West’s Jersey Shore, Pa.; Eschweiler and Stolberg, Germany; and St. Petersburg and Clearwater, Fla. plants have been audited by PSCI, and additional plants will be audited in the future. West’s goal in participating with the group will be to aid in the development of the organization and work to engage the supplier community to help companies better understand why a third-party audit can help to ensure that systems and governance required by the industry are in place at all points on the supply chain.

“Joining PSCI shows that West understands what our customers want from their suppliers,” noted Wilson. “And that West has systems in place through its Corporate Code of Business Conduct and other policies and procedures that have ingrained the principles of PSCI into all of the company’s operations.”

PSCI Members:

Allergan
AstraZeneca
Baxter
Bayer
Biogen Idec
Boehringer Ingelheim
Bristol-Myers Squibb
GlaxoSmithKline
Johnson & Johnson
Lilly
Mallinckrodt
Merck
Novartis
Novo Nordisk
Pfizer
Roche
West