Business Ethics Building the World’s Largest
Public-Private Partnerships
for Ethical Business Practices

The Challenge 

Upholding ethical business practices and sustaining trust is of utmost importance for multinational companies engaging with diverse international stakeholders. This is true for any industry. Without safeguards in place, enterprises globally are exposed to higher risks of doing business, including legal and reputational harm. It’s a major challenge for both companies and governments, as unethical business practices undermine the entire ecosystem by stifling competition, innovation, and investment.

Why CMI?

Having encountered enormous risks on these issues, particularly when operating in emerging markets, companies in the medical device and biopharmaceutical sectors recognized the need for proactive coordination and the harmonization of ethical principles worldwide. They were drawn to C&M International’s reputation as an accomplished convener and facilitator across countries and within international forums, as well as to our expertise in guiding respected global public-private partnerships that engage diverse stakeholders. For over a decade, CMI has served as a trusted partner on engagements at the highest levels of companies and governments in international healthcare, business ethics, and compliance.

What We Did

To help level the playing field and bolster patient-centered healthcare, the CMI team worked across these two health-related sectors to build the world’s largest public-private partnership aimed at strengthening ethical business practices. Thus far, on behalf of our clients, we have rallied over 2,000 collaborating organizations in more than 100 countries – including leading government authorities, industry associations, healthcare professional groups, and patient organizations – to create and implement the only international ethics guidance for the sectors that are recognized by heads of state. We support a broad coalition of stakeholders that leverages public and private sector expertise, enlists commitments to support the adoption of codes of conduct aligned with best practices, works to harmonize these codes across countries, and creates systems to monitor and evaluate performance over time. Through these initiatives, our work has:

• Elevated the prioritization of ethics and integrity in major international platforms such as the Summit of the Americas, Americas Business Dialogue (ABD), the G20/B20, the World Bank Group, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, where CMI serves as the nexus between industry and non-industry actors and governments.

• Supported the design and launch of eight national consensus framework agreements for ethical collaboration, unifying more than 200 leading healthcare organizations serving thousands of companies, hundreds of thousands of healthcare professionals, and millions of patients.

• Convened all medical device associations in the Western Hemisphere to facilitate universal code of ethics adoption and alignment for the first time, extending high standard ethics to more than 3,000 enterprises.

• Supported the rollout of the world’s only collective action initiative to advance ethical practices across private healthcare payors, providers, and investors.
  

The Outcome

Since CMI launched these pioneering global partnerships over a decade ago, the number of national health industry associations with codes of ethics has more than doubled in the Asia-Pacific and Americas alone, with 87 associations today having a code of ethics. These efforts have brought more than 20,000 companies under codes of ethical conduct. Thanks to this work, health companies are seeing vast improvements in how global business is done, making a real difference in medical innovation, scientific advancement, and the quality, safety and efficacy of healthcare for patients around the world.

With our expertise and the far-reaching networks among industry, trade and government leaders worldwide, C&M International has the capacity to create a truly global and effective standards-raising initiative for any industry.  To learn more about C&M International’s global business ethics, compliance, and integrity capabilities and what we can do to support your company or sector, please contact Andrew Blasi (ablasi@crowell.com) and Katherine Nunner (knunner@crowell.com).