41 2021 ESG Report Appendices Transparency Healthy workforce and communities Responsible supply chain Climate change Introduction Product impact Laboratory animal welfare BD is committed to animal welfare across the BD Research Animal Program. We follow federal animal welfare regulations and laws that are designed to ensure the responsible use of research animals for patient safety. Our corporate policy is available on bd.com and applies to all BD associates whose responsibilities involve the handling, care and/or use of animals. It includes responsibility and oversight, as well as provisions for the handling, care and use of animals. Our mission is to provide for the well-being of all research animals that are purpose-bred to support important medical device development and testing that helps both human and veterinary patients. The BD Research Animal Program undergoes voluntary accreditation by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) International every three years. The program has been accredited since 1975 and includes site visits by credentialed veterinarians and animal care professionals to ensure we are following the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals 8th edition. This includes a Program of Veterinary Care, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), a Program of Occupational Health and a gold-standard animal facility that promotes animal health and welfare with environments that promote natural behavior. BD is highly committed to providing research animals with care. Good animal welfare leads to good scientific data in support of product safety. BDs institutional official and attending veterinarian provides oversight to a corporate committee known as the Animal Welfare and Oversight Policy committee. This dedicated committee of professionals working with animals across BD routinely meets to share best practices and discuss animal regulation updates and application of the 4Rs: replacement, refinement, reduction and retirement. BD supports replacement by using in vitro testing when possible; refinement by following veterinary gold-standard practice across all animal studies; reduction of animal numbers by reviewing the extensive literature of previous studies; and an active retirement program that provides adoption opportunities to BD research animal heroes. BD is a member of the National Association of Biomedical Research and the European Animal Research Association, both of whom help educate the public about the importance of laboratory animal research and support advancements and best practices in laboratory animal medicine. The BD Research Animal Program veterinarians conduct animal welfare audits across all animal vendors to establish that they provide the same level of care as the BD standards. The audits are combined with our Quality Assurance program. We require that all third parties who carry out animal testing on our behalf are covered by our Expectations for Suppliers (EFS) and our company policy. AAALAC- accredited third parties are preferred as they ensure the same level of commitment to the animal regulations and gold standards. BD will continue to host a BRAD (Biomedical Research Awareness Day) event each year as part of an international effort to celebrate the contributions of research animals in biomedical research. This effort helps to further educate the BD community on the significant, lifesaving medical contributions research animals have made to improve both human and veterinary medicine. BD is committed to ensuring that our medical devices are safe for veterinary, as well as human, patient use. Medical Affairs Medical Affairs is a human health-focused organization serving as the bridge between the clinical practice of medicine and BD. The organization consists of a team of experts with hands-on clinical experience across a range of medical areas and specialties. This clinical expertise is leveraged to understand and evaluate how our products work in the clinical settings where they are used. This includes understanding unmet medical needs, translating these insights into innovation, and determining the need for evidence that defines the clinical value of our products. It also includes communicating the evidence that defines our products through conversations, publications and presentations. Being the only organization at BD that consists of clinicians with a clinical remit, the Medical Affairs organization is also responsible for oversight of the safety of human subjects when conducting research and evaluating product issues that may threaten the health and well-being of those who use our products. As part of the BD Inspire Quality initiative, Global Medical Safety and Governance is involved in restructuring how Medical Affairs will support quality—specifically, product risk management file review and approvals across BD. This is fundamental to consistent product benefit–risk assessments throughout the BD portfolio of products. Global Medical Safety and Governance has been directly involved and has served as the Medical Affairs representative for several of the BD Inspire Quality initiative efforts, which are redefining the BD quality process. The Global Medical Safety and Governance (GMS&G) organization is a dedicated and specialized independent medical safety organization that maintains a constant and proactive monitoring process that encourages a consistent and efficient means for product safety as well as Quality, Regulatory, and Ethics & Compliance alignment. It is also intended to provide a neutral and independent assessment and objective means for escalation, independent of the BD business unit.