Our business activities touch many people's lives, including patients, physicians, shareholders, employees, regulators, partners, those who pay for healthcare and the communities around us. Maintaining the trust and confidence of these groups means ensuring that our high level values are translated into consistent and appropriate behaviour worldwide.

Everyone is required to be aware of, and conduct their activities in accordance with this Code, all supporting policies and applicable codes, and the laws and regulations of the countries in which we work and do business. We must operate to the highest of the standards required by these various authorities, and always have due regard to national legislative requirements, as a minimum, and to circumstances where the laws of more than one country may apply.

Managers are responsible for providing appropriate support to enable their teams to understand the requirements of this Code and the relevant supporting policies and how they should be applied in practice. Managers are also responsible for providing assurance on these matters to the Board of Directors of AstraZeneca.

The following sections of this Code outline AstraZeneca's core commitments – what they mean and how they should be actively implemented at all levels within the Company.

You must also be prepared to exercise good judgement and common sense in deciding the right actions to take, because this Code and our supporting policies cannot cover every situation that may arise. You should ask questions if you are unclear about any aspect of this Code, or if you are not sure how to respond to an issue that the Code does not address.

You must also promptly report any known, suspected or observed violations of laws, regulations, this Code or supporting policies of which you become aware.