MASSDEVICE ON CALL — The 2012 list of the world’s most ethical companies included a handful of medical device makers and group purchasing organizations, according to the research-based Ethisphere Institute.
Becton Dickinson & Co. (NYSE:BDX) and Henry Schein (NSDQ:HSIC) were the only U.S.-based device makers to make the grade, and Coloplast (CPH:COLO B) and Philips (NYSE:PHG) represented for Denmark and the Netherlands.
Both top U.S.-based group purchasing organizations, Premier and Novation, made the list for health care services. General Electric (NYSE:GE) ranked under "diversified industry" and Kimberly Clark scored under "consumer products."
The Ethisphere Institute gathered a committee of attorneys, professors, government officials and organization leaders to create a scoring methodology to hand out its annual awards for the world’s most ethical companies.
Companies submit applications over the course of the year, and Ethisphere considers the applications and conducts in-depth analysis into each group’s ethics and compliance programs.
Ethisphere tops that off with data analysis and further research into each organization to generate scores for corporate citizenship & responsibility, corporate governance, innovation that contributes to the public well-being, industry leadership, executive leadership and "tone from the top", legal/regulatory/reputation track record and internal systems for ethics & compliance programs.
GE, Premier, Becton Dickinson and Philips have all made the list for the past 5 years in a row.
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