Launched in 2010, the Business Ethics for APEC SMEs Initiative biopharmaceutical sector program actively supports the adoption and implementation of voluntary codes of ethics by the region’s relevant industry associations. These associations include thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises that constitute the overwhelming majority of firms operating in the region’s biopharmaceutical sector. 

Welcomed by APEC Economic Leaders and Ministers, this Initiative – the largest public-private partnership of its kind in the world – realizes the best practices set by the APEC Mexico City Principles in 2010 through implementation of the actions set forth in the APEC Nanjing Declaration to Promoting Ethical Environments in the Medical Device and Biopharmaceutical Sectors. Monitoring and evaluation of code adoption and implementation by the APEC region’s biopharmaceutical industry associations serves as one of the Initiative’s core activities.This is done through an annual survey program extended to every known biopharmaceutical industry association in the region.To-date, the Initiative monitors 71 biopharmaceutical industry associations that represent a significant majority of the regional biopharmaceutical economy. These annual surveys are divided into two components: code of ethics adoption and code of ethics implementation.