Building on more than 70 years' experience in the research, development and manufacturing of medicines for the treatment of brain diseases, Lundbeck is consolidating its corporate actions into an Access to Brain Health Strategy. It is inspired by four right to health principles from WHO: Availability, Accessibility, Acceptability and Good Quality.

We have defined our aspirations within each of these principles. We will build on our current actions with new initiatives over the coming years:

• Availability: We leverage our specialist knowledge to address the burden of brain diseases and continue to make medicines available
• Accessibility: We promote the accessibility of our medicines by addressing discriminatory, physical, economical, and informational barriers.
• Acceptability: We improve mental health parity, reduce stigma, support national suicide prevention efforts, and enhance cultural acceptability of brain diseases.
• Good Quality: We provide high-quality medicinal products, safeguard patient safety and combat counterfeit medicine.

We expand on each of these below:

Lundbeck is engaged in the research and development, production, marketing and sale of innovative pharmaceuticals. We build on our strong scientific understanding of brain diseases to develop transformative medicines, and on our global presence to bring innovative therapies to people living with psychiatric and neurological diseases.

These are serious and can be life-threatening, affecting quality of life for patients and their relatives. The past 50 years have seen a revolutionary change in treatment options, but there remains a large unmet need.

Lundbeck remains committed to delivering the innovation that patients need. We work tirelessly to advance neuroscience, develop new life-changing treatments and support patient communities. Everything we do serves our overall purpose of restoring brain health and transforming the lives of the millions of people living with brain diseases.

Given its high-risk nature, many companies have reduced their investments or even abandoned research within brain disease. Lundbeck has tirelessly sustained its focus in this critical area of medicine.

In the coming years, we will take additional actions to address discriminatory, physical, economic, and informational barriers to make effective and tolerable brain disease treatments more accessible.

We acknowledge the challenges faced by healthcare systems under pressure from rising demands and recognise concerns over the affordability of innovative medicines. But we remain resolute that our commercialisation of improved treatments creates value for patients, societies and investors.

Running a sustainable business requires us to invest in new and improved treatments for patients, while reducing the societal burden and delivering a competitive return to our shareholders. The value we generate from our marketed medicines allows us to reinvest in research and development of new and improved treatments.

In 2020, we entered into a new global mental healthcare partnership with International Health Partners (IHP). It is an exciting new project, and we look forward to working together to making a real impact for some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

We work to enhance cultural acceptability of brain diseases, improve mental health parity, reduce stigma, support disease awareness and offer education. The ultimate beneficiaries are those with brain disease and their carers.

Lundbeck partners with advocacy groups, including the International Association for Suicide Prevention and the World Federation for Mental Health, GAMIAN-Europe and EUFAMI. Our partnership with the International Association for Early Interventions on Mental Health aims to promote the #ChatSafe Guidelines for online communication about suicide prevention.

Our actions to provide medicines that are of a good quality, cover the whole value chain from early research, clinical development and manufacturing, through to distribution to pharmacies.

We integrate our quality and patient safety processes into our ‘GxP’ Quality Management System. ‘GP’ stands for Good Practice and ‘x’ represents Laboratory (GLP), Clinical (GCP), Pharmacovigilance (GPvP), Manufacturing (GMP), and Distribution (GDP). Our Good Practices are maintained through procedures, training, and regular auditing. Our GxP Quality Management System aligns with Lundbeck's Code of Conduct, business objectives and processes, and with national and international regulatory requirements.

Lundbeck is obliged by the authorities to conduct studies on animals to advance tolerable and effective medicines to treat brain diseases. We will only use animal studies where no alternatives exist and when the benefits outweigh the possible risks of animal discomfort. We provide appropriate care for our experimental animals and continuously work to improve our animal research policy, procedures, and animal facilities.

Counterfeit medicine is fake medicine. It is deliberately mislabelled products with the correct or wrong ingredients, without active ingredients, with insufficient active ingredients or with fake packaging.

We take stringent measures to secure our supply chain and ensure that genuine Lundbeck medicines reach patients every time. We protect the integrity of our products by labelling packages with batch numbers, serial numbers and 2D matrix technologies. We use transport companies audited and approved through our quality agreements. We collaborate with customs authorities to inspect shipments claiming to contain Lundbeck products and engage with international organisations dedicated to fighting counterfeit medicine.

Medicines should only be purchased through authorised channels as recommended by healthcare professionals. Lundbeck does not offer its medicines for sale on the internet or through social media.

If you have concerns about the authenticity of a Lundbeck product, please contact us.

We acknowledge our responsibility to people who depend on our products and knowledge to manage their disease. Reporting of adverse drug reactions is important for us to continuously evaluate the benefits and risks of our products and take proactive action as warranted.

Please consult your doctor if you experience a potential adverse drug reaction. You can also report adverse drug reactions directly to Lundbeck using the online contact form or telephone 01908 638972. Reporting forms and information can be found at www.mhra.gov.uk/yellowcard.