Ethics, Compliance, and Human Rights

Our culture of integrity, accountability, and transparency

At Fresenius Kabi, acting responsibly is all about building trust, engaging our employees, and meeting our customers’ needs. That is why we promote ethical business practices and foster a responsible and sustainable supply chain. This approach benefits our suppliers and their employees, local communities, our own employees, and patients.

Across our business, we are committed to acting with integrity and transparency while respecting all forms of human rights. Find out more about our approach and programs below.

people working in office
Compliance and ethics are essential components of a comprehensive sustainability agenda. They help ensure that environmental, social and governance goals are pursued in a responsible, transparent and legally sound manner, building trust with stakeholders and supporting long-term value creation.

Martin Bretschneider, Chief Compliance Officer at Fresenius Kabi

Martin Bretschneider, Chief Compliance Officer Fresenius Kabi

Ethical business: Upholding integrity and compliance

For us, integrity means acting ethically and always doing the right thing – legally and beyond. We have built a culture of compliance, accountability and transparency, and strive to uphold these values in everything we do.

Together with our employees and suppliers, we aim to consistently:

  • Respect human rights
  • Nurture a more sustainable supply chain
  • Follow a zero-tolerance approach to bribery, corruption, and antitrust violations

For our own operations, our values are detailed in the Fresenius Group Code of Conduct, which also applies to Fresenius Kabi. Through comprehensive training, we empower everyone to live our principles every day, making integrity a cornerstone of our work.

Fresenius Group Code of Conduct

We also uphold our commitment to integrity and ethical business conduct across our value chain. We carefully select our suppliers and business partners to ensure ethical business standards at every step of our production process. Within this aim, we expect certain partners to follow our Third-Party Code of Conduct. Before working with a new business partner, we conduct thorough due diligence to identify any potential risks to our values. This method helps us address any concerns early on and ensures our suppliers meet our high ethical business standards.

Industry collaboration for a responsible supply chain

Since the beginning of 2025, Fresenius Kabi has been an associate member of the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative (PSCI). This initiative by leading pharmaceutical and healthcare companies promotes responsible supply chain practices and ethical sourcing standards. The PSCI's core principles provide clear guidance for suppliers on ethics, labor rights, health and safety, environmental sustainability, and management systems.

Upholding our principles

We act in line with the Fresenius Principles, which include complying with all relevant laws and regulations. We proactively identify and manage potential risks to our company, our operations, and, most importantly, our employees and patients.

List of compliance violations: bribery, fraud, data breaches, insider trading, and more under a scale icon.

We thoroughly analyze and address these risks using our Compliance Management System, based on three pillars: 

Our compliance tools include:

  • Policies and guidelines, such as global company policies, standard operation procedures, and working instructions
  • Regular training and awareness campaigns
  • Comprehensive risk management, including risk assessments, indicator development, and training
  • Software-based monitoring tools

We identify potential cases of misconduct via:

  • Reporting channels for employees and external stakeholders
  • Our internal compliance monitoring team
  • Regular or incident-based internal audits
  • Third-party audits

We manage reported incidents through:

  • Strict confidentiality and whistleblower protection
  • Reviews and investigations by designated case teams
  • Taking responsible and appropriate action
  • Continuously improving our processes and measures

Speak up! Reporting misconduct at Fresenius Kabi 

Whether you are an employee, customer, supplier, or third party, you can report potential compliance violations or human rights risks linked to our operations.

To ask questions, seek guidance, or report any suspected misconduct, you can:

You can make your report anonymously and in your preferred language. Translation services are also available.

All submissions are treated carefully and confidentially by an independent team of experienced compliance investigators. They report directly to our Chief Compliance Officer.

To ensure we protect all people who speak up, we do not tolerate any forms of retaliation. You can find detailed information on our case management process and other reporting channels in our Speak Up Policy.

Compliance topics in focus

Our Compliance Management System covers a wide range of risks – but how do we approach them? You can find more details in the examples below and the “Business Conduct” section of our Fresenius Annual Report.



We are committed to complying with applicable anti-corruption and anti-bribery (ABC) laws. Our comprehensive global ABC Policy outlines clear rules and principles to avoid bribery and corruption, both within our company and by third parties. 

Without exception, our employees must comply with antitrust laws in all locations and in all third-party interactions and transactions. Our global Antitrust Policy includes risk assessments, controls for sensitive transactions, training and communication, reporting of antitrust cases, and remediation, monitoring, and legal support. With this comprehensive policy, we help to ensure antitrust compliance across all our business operations and legal entities.

Respecting human rights – internally and beyond

We are committed to respecting human rights across our operations and global supply chains. This dedication is central to our ethical business principles and our mission of being Committed to Life. We prioritize fair and safe working conditions, the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining, and equal treatment for all. We stand firmly against child labor, forced or exploitative labor, and modern slavery.

A group of people standing in a circle, all wearing blue shirts, with their hands stacked together in the center against a backdrop of a cloudy sky.
Our commitment to sustainability is inextricably linked to the respect for human rights - it forms the foundation for a just and livable future for everyone.

Marco Krämer, Director Supplier Quality Management and Human Rights Function at Fresenius Kabi

Marco Krämer

Our human rights program

Our human rights program aims to uphold human rights across our operations and global supply chains. We have implemented a robust due diligence process to identify, prevent, and address potential human rights impacts. We also expect our suppliers and business partners to mirror these rules and standards, defined in our Third-Party Code of Conduct

Comprehensive information on the Fresenius human rights program can be found on our Fresenius Group human rights pages

 

Five steps in the Human Rights Program: policy design, risk analysis, prevention, grievance, and reporting.

Reporting and accountability

We believe in speaking up to protect people. This is why we encourage our employees, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders to report any human rights concerns through dedicated global reporting channels. All reports can be made anonymously and are handled with the utmost confidentiality by specialized compliance teams as detailed above.

Transparency and accountability are key for us at Fresenius Kabi. You can find detailed insights into our human rights due diligence processes in the annual reports we publish in accordance with the German Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains (LkSG) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

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Report on the LkSG Fresenius Kabi AG
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Report on the LkSG Fresenius Kabi Deutschland GmbH

Continuous improvement

Respecting human rights is integral to our principles, mission, and operations. We strive to make positive contributions to society and uphold the dignity of everyone involved in our business.

Within our approach is a desire to continuously learn and improve. We enhance our human rights practices through ongoing training, awareness campaigns, and fostering a culture of integrity and accountability.



Disclaimer

Fresenius Kabi is a fully consolidated subsidiary of Fresenius SE. This website includes an overview of the Fresenius Kabi sustainability commitment. All data on this website corresponds to a subset of group data that is published in the Fresenius Group Sustainability Statement 2024 and thus is assured by an external auditor. The Sustainability Statement is prepared in full compliance with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).