Performance by Technical Area

Has a strong access-to-medicine strategy with executive-level responsibility. Johnson & Johnson is one of 14 companies that performs strongly with regard to its access-to-medicine strategy, which includes access-related goals, and aligns with its corporate strategies. The strategy centres around promoting access to certain medicines within the company's portfolio, utilising strategies such as equity-based tiered pricing and partnerships with local organisations. The highest level of responsibility for access sits with the executive committee.

Financial and non-financial access-related incentives to reward employees. Johnson & Johnson performs strongly in encouraging employees to work towards access-related objectives. It is one of 14 companies to have both financial and non-financial incentives in place to motivate employees to perform on access-related issues. These incentives include annual performance bonuses and long-term incentives based on individual performance. Senior management has a separate incentive that supports the company's long-term access oriented objectives. 

One of 16 companies working on impact measurement. Johnson & Johnson measures and monitors progress and outcomes of access-to-medicine activities. It also publicly reports on its commitments, objectives, targets and performance information. For example, it publicly shares its targets and independently verifies data in its Health for Humanity report. Furthermore, it is one of the companies that is measuring impact through a monitoring and evaluation framework that includes impact targets, for at least one access initiative, New Horizons. 

Clear and transparent stakeholder engagement approach that includes local stakeholders. Johnson & Johnson publicly discloses which stakeholder groups it engages with on access issues, as well as its process for selecting who to engage with. It selects by using different processes for each stakeholder group. Johnson & Johnson does not share a specific policy for responsible engagement but it has some policies covering responsible interactions with stakeholders, namely guiding its interactions with stakeholders for improving access.

Has measures to ensure third-party compliance with ethical marketing and anti-corruption standards. Johnson & Johnson has a code of conduct relating to ethical marketing and anti-corruption, and provides regular compliance training for employees. The company provides evidence of having formal processes in place to ensure compliance with standards by third parties. Yet, expected performance for sales agents is based solely on sales targets. The company reports that for some products it does not deploy sales and marketing representatives to facilitate sales.

Internal control framework meets some Index criteria. Johnson & Johnson's internal control framework to ensure compliance meets some of the criteria looked for by the Index. Namely, it has an auditing and review mechanism in place. It performs regular evaluations that also apply to third parties, and it has a monitoring system for compliance. However, Johnson & Johnson does not report conducting fraud-specific risk assessments, nor does it demonstrate having procedures to segregate duties, so that decisions are checked by another party. 

Above average transparency regarding access-related practices. Johnson & Johnson publicly discloses its policy positions on access-related topics (e.g., its position on universal health coverage, and intellectual property). Johnson & Johnson reports that outside the US, it only makes political contributions in Australia, Canada and Japan; and these contributions are tracked at the local level. It discloses its membership and financial contributions to relevant organisations. It also discloses its policies for responsible engagement with its charter for general oversight. Johnson & Johnson does not publicly disclose its policy approach for payments made to healthcare professionals in countries in scope.

Publicly commits to R&D to meet public health needs. Johnson & Johnson has publicly committed to R&D for diseases and countries in scope. Its R&D strategy for low- and middle-income countries is informed by an evidence-based public health rationale based on public health targets. Further, it has time-bound strategies for completing R&D projects for diseases in scope and evaluates progress toward these targets. Johnson & Johnson has one of the largest pipelines in the Index with 138 projects. For diseases in scope where priorities exist, Johnson & Johnson is active in 58 projects; 41 of these target priority R&D gaps.

Access provisions in place for 14% (8/58) of late-stage candidates. Johnson & Johnson has a clear process in place to develop access plans during R&D. The process considers all R&D projects for diseases in scope using its Janssen Value, Access and Pricing (VAP) framework. In general, Johnson & Johnson begins to develop access plans for R&D projects in Phase II of clinical development. To date, Johnson & Johnson has project-specific access provisions in place for eight of its late-stage R&D projects. Of these, two are being conducted in partnership. 

Policy to ensure post-trial access; commits to registering trialed products. Johnson & Johnson has a policy for ensuring post-trial access to treatments for clinical trial participants and has provided a detailed example of this policy in action in countries in scope. However, this policy is not publicly available. The policy is aligned with the standards set in the Declaration of Helsinki. Once a product is approved, Johnson & Johnson commits to registering it in all countries where clinical trials for the product have taken place. 

*Defined as a recommended time frame through consultation with stakeholders during Index methodology development.