At a special assembly of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce held on 28 February 2011 at the National and University Library in Zagreb, JGL was awarded the DOP Indeks Award for corporate citizenship of business entities in Croatia. The award is granted in accordance with the methodology and criteria for evaluating socially responsible practice developed by Croatian experts in three main categories: small (10 to 49 employees), medium-sized (from 50 to 249 employees) and large enterprises (more than 250 employees). JGL was awarded a special prize for the most significant improvement compared to the previous year.
Jadran Galenski laboratorij d.d. (JGL), is a Croatian pharmaceutical company with headquarters in Rijeka. Core activities of JGL are research and development, registration, manufacture, marketing and sale of generic prescription drugs, non-prescription drugs, drugs based on natural substances, dietary products, medical products and dermatological cosmetics.
JGL has a developed awareness of the influence on and responsibility towards the microenvironment. Since 2000, when the company became a full member of the Croatian Business Council for Sustainable Development (HR PSOR) to 2010, when it prepared its second Sustainable Development Report in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (Global Reporting Initiative - GRI) guidelines, JGL aims to be among the companies initiating change and promoting sustainable development.
In this sense, our significant growth resulting in more 300 products and presence in about thirty markets, is accompanied by adequate initiatives and planning in the field of social responsibility and environmental protection, by maintaining a stable economic base.
JGL strives to achieve measurable results in the areas of:
- environmental protection (control and separation of wastewater, increased amount of recycled waste, reduced amount of general waste, reduced water, electricity, and fuel consumption, including emissions from company vehicles)
- relationships with employees (transparency in operation, evaluation and rewarding system)
- relationship with other shareholders (business partners, customers, patients, schools)
- reporting (sustainable development reporting in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines, participation in the DOP Indeks survey).
In the scope of responsible business conduct and care for the society and environment, JGL stood out in the year 2009, when some of the the key technology projects were realized: the construction and equipping of a new modern facility for semi-solid pharmaceutical forms according to the RU GMP standards, activities on improvement of the quality management system in accordance with EU GMP and ISO standards, as well as the development of environmental management systems. All activities were initiated with the objective of raising efficiency and productivity, with a simultaneous maintenance or increase in the safety and quality of production processes, regarding both the product and the operators.
Since compliance with the good manufacturing practice (GMP) is a precondition for ensuring sustainability in the pharmaceutical business, resulting in safe and efficient products, reducing variability and errors that could lead to greater amount of waste, possible withdrawal from the market and other adverse results, all these activities have been aligned with the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP).
Employees play an important role in the successful completion of activities and the fulfilment of goals, regardless of whether they are a part of the manufacturing process, or are indirectly related to the product. In addition to the above, year 2009 was marked by different activities in the human resources management area, and we must stress that within this period the company also succeeded in maintaining a high rate of new employment. JGL now employs 480 people, 280 of which are in Croatia.
Based on activities in 2009 and 2010, JGL started this year with the aim of further improvement in all these areas. Thus, the following projects must be implemented:
- development laboratory expansion
- construction of new quality-control laboratories
- further innovations in the electronic management of materials
- continued introduction of e-work orders and e-reports for the release of products.
Moreover, we prepared an employment plan in cooperation with the Universities of Rijeka and Zagreb, and have partnership projects in place with foreign pharmaceutical companies, including a range of sponsorships and donations. The guiding principle in these projects is to provide assistance to those who need it most, and ensure support for projects promoting a spirit of friendship, education, sports and health - thus contributing to the development of social environment for the benefit of the community as a whole.