Indicators: Society

For spending on social engagement, we calculate product donations at their fair value, except for the praziquantel donated within our Praziquantel Donation Program, whose value is calculated according to the WHO Guidelines for Medicine Donations.

The sharp increase in our spending on social engagement is attributable to three factors:

• Expansion of our Praziquantel Donation Program.
• Expansion of the ECPAP – Erbitux® China Patients Aid Program launched in 2011, in which we work with the Beijing Red Cross Foundation to provide Erbitux® free-of-charge to low-income patients with colorectal cancer. Our biopharmaceuticals division has established registration centers in 35 cities in China.
• First inclusion of contributions to the Serono Symposia International Foundation. This is a charitable organization that works to promote advanced medical training for scientists, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other health care professionals.

As a result of the sharp increase in spending on social engagement in Europe and Emerging Markets, the relative share of spending in North America declined.

We assign the motivations for our engagement to categories based on the model of the London Benchmarking Group and the guidelines of the Bertelsmann Foundation for corporate social engagement. Projects that primarily aim to make improvements within the community are classified as "Community investment". Projects that are predominantly aimed at company-relevant factors such as image or personnel recruitment are classified as "Commercial initiatives in the community". "Charitable activities” comprehends any other projects that benefit a charitable organization, but cannot be assigned to either of the other two motivation categories due to missing data or their narrow scope.