Employees
Attracting, motivating and retaining a highly skilled workforce are critical to our business success. Our employment policies are based on guidelines for best practice. They recognise the rights of all employees and ensure equal opportunities for all staff without discrimination.
We aim to develop and maintain a motivated and professional workforce through career development, performance evaluation and feedback, training and promotion. Training is given in a wide variety of ways including on-the-job coaching and in-house or external courses. Our staff appraisal process continues to function well, by providing a formal process for setting objectives and reviewing performance.
In 2009, we undertook a review of the working space in our offices on The Oxford Science Park. Following a consultation process with staff, we implemented various recommendations, including the creation of a new break-out and coffee area and other refurbishments.
Health and safety
Oxford BioMedica is committed to protecting the health, safety and welfare of all its employees. Our Health and Safety Management System covers all work activities such as the usage of biological, chemical and radioactive materials, and the operation of laboratory equipment.
We recently upgraded our Containment Level 3 facility, which has specially engineered design features for the production of our LentiVector-based products. These enhancements support the increased development activities, particularly in relation to our ocular programmes. This high-category laboratory successfully passed an HSE Specified Animal Pathogen Order (SAPO) inspection in September 2009.
Furthermore, the Environmental Agency conducted a routine inspection of all our laboratory activities, including our Radiation Management System, in February 2009. Encouragingly, there were no critical or major findings from the agency’s inspection and our systems were deemed to be robust.
Our Quality Management System ensures good practice for all of our staff, particularly those employees working in our research, development and manufacturing team, who receive suitable training and adhere to our guidelines for good practice. In January 2010, the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) completed a successful GMP audit. Again, no major or critical observations were noted.
We strive to maintain an effective health and safety culture within Oxford BioMedica. The importance of health and safety to our organisation is reflected through the active involvement of senior management and representation at Board level.
|
 |
External relationships
Our external stakeholders include suppliers, advisors, shareholders, patients, healthcare professionals, partners and licensees. These relationships are a fundamental aspect of our business activities. We are committed to interacting with these third parties in an ethical manner, and to ensuring that the relationships are maintained at a professional and appropriate level. Our internal procedures for dealing with third parties are reviewed annually.
We have a policy for the management of clinical trials to ensure compliance with appropriate guidelines and legislation. Our website, provides information on ongoing clinical trials, and we also list our US-based trials on a US government-sponsored website www.ClinicalTrials.gov
The Chief Executive Officer and Executive Directors have primary responsibility for communication with shareholders and related stakeholders. We also use the services of external financial and corporate communications agencies. We seek to disseminate information in a timely, reliable and comprehensive fashion, and we comply with the rules and guidelines of the UK Listing Authority for a company on the Official List.
Environment
We fully recognise our responsibility to protect the environment and we review our environmental policy, objectives and guidelines regularly. The Company complies with all regulations that cover the processing and disposal of laboratory waste; using qualified licensed contractors for the collection and disposal of chemical and radioactive waste and decontaminated biological materials. No laboratory waste goes to landfill sites.
As part of our commitment to the environment, our policies are designed to motivate our staff to be energy conscious and environmentally friendly. The Company's recycling program continues to function effectively and the majority of our cardboard and office paper is recycled. Again, given its importance to Oxford BioMedica, environmental issues are represented at Board level.
|
