Corporate Governance
Basic Principles
CMIC Group places the utmost importance on ethics and science as a company that is involved in the business to support human life, and believes it is the base of corporate governance to secure soundness in management, transparency, legal compliance, and fairness to all stakeholders including the shareholders and customers.
Based on the above idea, our company strives as a holding company to improve corporate value further through ensuring efficiency and promptness of decision making and execution, clarification of management responsibility, adequate compliance, and strengthening risk management.
Corporate Governance Framework
Overview of the CMIC Group corporate governance system is as follows:
Each and every employee with noble intent and high ethics, taking positive steps forward in activities that contribute to society, so that we may fulfill our responsibilities as a good corporate citizen, and be a company entrusted by society.
Support for travel clinic service (medical examination and treatment) in Brazil
CMIC supports annual travel clinic service for Japanese immigrants in Brazil, which has been provided for over three generations by Dr. Emilio Moriguchi (CMIC’s consultant in Brazil).
Why travel clinic service?
Japanese immigrants arrived in the south of Brazil immediately after the end of the war cannot speak Portuguese and therefore are not able to visit local hospitals for examination or consultation.
Dr. Emilio Hideyuki Moriguchi, Japanese Brazilian doctor, has provided travel clinic service for such Japanese immigrants living in the south of Brazil for over three generations. There are many Japanese immigrants who look forward to the annual travel clinic. Dr. Emilio Moriguchi travels in a mobile medical van for over 3,000 km every year to reach out to them and provide medical care in Japanese.
CMIC Group’s Involvement
Following the economic growth in Brazil, the amount of public subsidy for the travel clinic service went down and Dr. Moriguchi’s out-of-pocket expenses have increased as a result. Under such circumstances, CMIC Group has started employee donations in 2014 in addition to corporate donations. CMIC Group will continue supporting Dr. Moriguchi in his wish to “continue travel clinic service for Japanese immigrants in the south of Brazil”.
CMIC Award for AIDS Researcher
CMIC Award is presented each year by The Japanese Society for AIDS Research (membership: approximately 2,000 persons) to one person whose innovative and superior achievements have contributed to the development of the Society, through activities in relation to the spread of HIV disease.
Taking Part in Rare Disease Day (RDD)
*The aim of Rare Disease Day (RDD) is to improve quality of life (QOL) for patients with rare/ intractable diseases through better diagnoses and treatments, with February 28th (February 29th in leap years) being so named, and RDD has now been held in approximately 100 countries around the world, since its inception in 2008 in Sweden.
Although rare diseases can affect over 7,000 people, diagnoses can often take time because of poor awareness, and it has been reported that there is an average 5 year wait before a diagnosis is reached, with patients changing hospital 7 times or more during that time.
We take part in RDD in Japan so that more people, through RDD activities, will have a deeper understanding of rare/ intractable diseases, and to make possible a society where patients suffering from refractory conditions and those who care for them may live life more at ease.
The CMIC group is involved in clinical trials for numerous orphan drugs (for rare diseases).
We wore badges and promoted consciousness-raising activities for a 1-month period in February, to increase community awareness of these patients on the part of healthcare practitioners and others, and, to help serve as a bridge between patients and their communities.
The CMIC group will also be lending its support to further RDD activities in future.
Outline of RDD activities in 2023
In 2023, CMIC will sponsor the following activities to provide knowledge on “rare diseases” for as many CMIC employees, family members, friends, and clients as possible.
- We recruited drawings for the purpose of making rare and intractable diseases known to more people through the network of each employee, and posted the applied pictures on the Japanese CMIC Group website.
- We will hold RDD seminar event for listening to direct voices from rare disease patient for the aim to raise awareness of CMIC employees.
- In order to encourage employee’s donation activities, we set up an intra site dedicated for RDD activities where donations can be deducted directly from their salaries.
- Employees wear a pin RDD badge and have RDD goods in order to make employees themselves aware of those diseases.
Co-hosting of the International Children’s Drawing Contest
CMIC Group and Nakamura Keith Haring Collection co-host the International Children’s Drawing Contest.
This annual contest started in 2009 as the only drawing competition officially recognized by the Keith Haring Foundation. Open to children ages 4 to 17, they have submitted their drawings from schools and painting classes inside and outside Japan, submissions have surpassed 1,000 in recent years. Every year, we invite special guest judges from art and fashion fields. Award winning entries will be exhibited for a week after the award ceremony at the Keith Haring Collection.
Nakamura Keith Haring Collection International Children’s Drawing Contest co-organized by CMIC HOLDINGS Co., Ltd. as part of its social contribution activities, has been designated for “This is MECENAT 2022” by Kigyo Mécénat Kyogikai.
Aims and objectives of co-sponsorship by CMIC Group
Keith Haring is one of the most recognizable and representative of the American art scene in the 1980’s. He was involved in social activities throughout his life such as child welfare education, workshops for children all over the world, and HIV/AIDS prevention awareness activities. Keith Haring also created murals and wall paintings with children in Tama-city, Tokyo in 1987. CMIC Group has inherited the will of Keith Haring who had always wished for children’s future filled with hope, love, and peace. We have supported the Annual Nakamura Keith Haring Collection International Children’s Drawing Contest since 2009. Our objective is to understand different races, religions, cultures, and environments through supporting the contest, provide opportunities for children to freely spread their wings around the global society, and make contributions to the society.
The 14th Annual Nakamura Keith Haring Collection International Children’s Drawing Contest Award Ceremony
Award ceremony was held on October 29, 2022 at the Nakamura Keith Haring Collection located in Kobuchizawa, Hokuto-City, Yamanashi Prefecture.
This year, we have received 1,617 entries from all over the world. 30 winners were chosen as a result of careful review by the judges.
The CMIC Group has embodied its ideals of “bringing about innovation in healthcare fields, so that all may stride forth true to themselves in this one and only life, regardless of age, gender or race” and “whether when the radiant flower of youthful vitality blooms, or as life matures in later age, every desire to live fully in the moment is equally precious” within the CMIC’s CREED.
It is upon the basis of these ideals that we hold up diversity as a management theme of great importance, and lend ourselves to concepts and thinking that enrich by venerating all forms of variety.
Diversity in the CMIC Group is not limited to personnel policies focused on women alone, and by venerating the ways in which our work and thoughts mutually differ, to arrive at yet higher caliber discussion and outcomes, whilst celebrating our variety, it is held up as something that makes us a company able to deliver high performance.
We believe that the employment of diverse personnel, irrespective of race/ gender/ disability, the veneration the contrasts between people to find value, and fair treatment regardless of dissimilarity are indispensable for business growth, and incorporate these beliefs into our advancement of diversity.
Approaches to Medicines for Rare Diseases
In the CMIC Group, we actively carry out our pursuit of medicines for rare diseases, on the basis of our “every desire to live fully in the moment is equally precious” thinking in the CMIC Creed, Our Resolve.
Not only do we lend ourselves to the development of new drugs by various drug manufacturing enterprises aimed at rare illnesses, CMIC also takes an approach whereby we apply for the recognition and sales of new drugs yet unapproved in Japan on our own.
We furthermore make contributions to society through approaches whereby we undertake the acquisition and sales of medicines for rare diseases, from other drug manufacturing enterprises.
Within the CMIC Group Code of Conduct, the CMIC Group recognizes that tackling environmental issues is an essential prerequisite for the continued existence and activities of the corporation, and stipulates that it must take voluntary, progressive action in this respect. Additionally, the CMIC Group Code of Conduct stipulates that we as individuals must also seriously consider environmental issues and resolutely take action.
The CMIC Group conducts business at 48 locations in Japan (four plants, six pharmaceutical development centers) and 15 locations globally (two plants, one pharmaceutical development center). With regard to Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) services, which are relatively important from the viewpoint of environmental burdens, our four plants in Japan have acquired ISO 14001 certification, with each plant working to reduce environmental burdens according to the location and characteristics of the products manufactured.
LNG satellite facility and small boiler facility
In November 2020, CMIC established the Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Promotion Committee to continuously review, educate and improve management systems at our four plants in Japan for the purposes of environmental conservation and employee health and safety promotion. We have been making efforts to convert heavy oil to LNG (natural gas) and maintain green spaces on plant premises to reduce CO2 emissions, and we will realize further reductions in environmental burdens by sharing knowledge among these four plants. Additionally, since the fiscal year ended September 30, 2020, we have calculated CO2 emissions at all plants bases in Japan. Going forward, we will use this as a baseline for efforts to reduce emissions intensity.
As drug manufacturing sites, these plants also submit legally required data to the relevant authorities.
Pharmaceutical development centers that conduct our CRO services’ non-clinical business also consider the environment by measuring toxic substances and waste.
Since the fiscal year ended September 2020, we began calculating the total amount of industrial waste emissions from all bases in Japan, which will be included in the data sheet along with CO2 emissions. With regard to environment-related plant and research institute management indicators, we will disclose more data per site on an ongoing basis to confirm and improve the results of Group environmental management over time.
| Environmental Data | 2020 |
|---|---|
| CO2 emissions (thousand tons CO2)*1 | 47 |
| Industrial waste emissions*2 | |
| Ascertained weight (tons)
Ascertained volume (kL) |
876
152 |
*1) Bases in Japan. Reference: The amount of CO2 absorbed by forests owned by the Nishine Plant was estimated at 260 tons per year in the 2014 survey, but this figure has not been added to the emissions data.
*2) Bases in Japan.
Carp swimming in the final drainage pond
Compliance
In the CMIC Group, we strive through the Company Rules, to create corporate culture of strict observance and penetrate the compliance consciousness, based on CMIC Group Code of Conduct. We carry out the following actions to let the Executives and Employees of the CMIC Group (hereinafter referred to as “all members of the Group”) understand this way of thinking well and always practice it in the duties of each person.
Actions for Compliance
Training: In the CMIC Group, we carry out “business ethics and compliance training” for all members of the Group once a year. The result of the training is going to be our basis of mindset, and is hope to help lead the compliance management across CMIC Group.
Compliance Handbook: As a part of the actions for the reinforcement of consciousness to compliance, “Compliance Handbook” is distributed to all members of the Group. This handbook contains many examples that help all members of the Group follow laws and the Company Rules and grasp a concrete standard to act in conformity with social common sense and judge their own action and ethics by themselves. Therefore, we can understand compliance better and try to be thorough and penetrate more.
Established Whistleblowing Contact Point: For the purpose of receiving reports and consultations widely from executives and employees of the CMIC Group for various issues related to compliance, “CMIC Group Whistleblowing Contact Point” has been established. The channels are set up internally and externally, and we are making efforts to prevent any fraud or misconduct, and to detect it at an early stage.
Intranet: To have all executives and employees of the CMIC Group promote better compliance, documents and reference information and Q&A related to the compliance are available on intranet so that they can access the latest information at any time.
CMIC Group Code of Conduct
The purpose of this CMIC Group Code of Conduct is to stipulate the basic principles of action to be observed by all members of the Group so that CMIC Group operates its business complying with laws and regulations and acting in accordance with social ethics.
CMIC Group Code of Conduct [PDF Link]
