Global Citizenship

Our Business

We work together to target diseases that pose the greatest burdens on society. The breadth and scope of our research and product portfolio enable us to make a unique and powerful contribution to global health.

Abbott is a diverse, global health care company headquartered in north suburban Chicago, Illinois, serving customers worldwide with a staff of about 60,000 employees in more than 150 countries with products marketed worldwide. Our products and services address a broad range of human health care needs, from disease prevention and diagnosis to treatment and cure.

We deliver results for patients and consumers, health care professionals, employees, and shareholders, and our company’s financial success enables us to continually invest, innovate, and introduce new products that are changing the practice of health care. Our success also benefits stakeholders around the world. In 2011, for example, Abbott spent approximately $16 billion with suppliers; paid $1.8 billion in income taxes; paid our employees $9.7 billion; and reinvested $4.1 billion in research and development, an 11 percent increase over 2010. Additionally, we contributed more than $730 million in philanthropic grants, product donations and patient assistance from Abbott and the Abbott Fund.

Improving Global Health

Our work targets diseases that pose some of the greatest burdens on society, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and vision disorders. We also focus on technologies that advance the early and accurate diagnosis of diseases, and we focus on products that enhance nutrition, another essential building block of human health.

We constantly explore new ways of ensuring that patients have access to our products and benefit from our knowledge. By partnering with others who share our commitment, we are finding better ways to help people in need overcome barriers to health care and live longer, more productive lives.

Turning Science into Caring

We regard our strategies for business growth and profitability as inseparable from our strategies for citizenship and sustainability. We strive to simultaneously create both public and private value – advancing science and helping to reduce the global disease burden while rewarding our employees and shareholders. The people of Abbott are committed to leveraging our expertise to improve global health care and advance sustainable development while minimizing our impact on the environment.

We attempt to weave our core values and commitment to good citizenship and sustainability into every facet of our business. Abbott’s four core values – pioneering, achieving, caring and enduring – guide and support all Abbott employees in every aspect of our work. We engage employees globally with values workshops, discussions, and our statement of purpose, the Abbott Promise for Life, published in multiple languages.

Each Abbott leader is responsible for ensuring that our company values are rooted deeply in the organization. Our values influence and guide our day-to-day decisions as they are made across the company, throughout the world.

Given the growing complexities of our business, our markets and the world we inhabit, it is essential that we establish concrete goals, priorities and processes to guide our citizenship strategies and measure our performance. Wherever possible, we develop meaningful, transparent metrics so that we and others may accurately assess our progress.

We have reported on our citizenship activities for almost 15 years and have produced annual Global Citizenship Reports since 2000. While we once relied exclusively upon printed reports, this Web site has become our primary means for communicating Abbott’s citizenship initiatives. In the second quarter of 2013, Abbott will publish its full online Global Citizenship Report for 2012. To request a copy of our printed summary report or to contact us with your thoughts and concerns about citizenship matters, please send an email to globalcitizenship@abbott.com. We welcome your thoughts on this report and other ways of communicating our progress.

Note: All data in the Global Citizenship section reflects activities prior to the separation of Abbott and AbbVie on January 1, 2013.