Athens, 19 February 2021

For DEMO, successful entrepreneurship is not only the company’s progress and the positive financial results, but it is a matter of social responsibility and sustainable development. In this context, and with the programme titled “It’s OUR responsibility”, the company is undertaking initiatives to support vulnerable social groups, by ensuring free-of-charge provision of medicines, medical materials and devices to decentralised island primary care units, non-governmental organisations, social pharmacies, and more. The company recycles huge quantities of plastic and paper while operating its own solid waste management plan, including waste collection, transport and disposal. DEMO ensures compliance with the proper management procedures for the buildings in its sites and the recording of carbon dioxide emissions, while achieving energy savings with the use of modern lighting systems. It has recently gained certification to ISO 14001:2015 for Environmental Management Systems and ISO 45001:2018 for Occupational Health and Safety. Finally, it supports three athletes participating in Alpine ski, fencing and sailing European and world championships.

With an eye on global events and society. COVID-19.

2020 has been a challenging year, so the core section of the company’s annual programme has been changed and adapted to address the needs arising at a local and global level. The COVID-19 pandemic is what defined the needs and the timing of DEMO’s response in terms of CSR.

Greek National Health System (ESY)

In April, DEMO pharmaceutical industry donated 60 vital signs monitors, worth €260,000, to ESY Intensive Care Units (ICU) in COVID-19 reference hospitals. In addition, as a member of the Panhellenic Union of Pharmaceutical Industries (PEF), it was one of the companies that played a leading role in donating 40 high-tech ICU beds to ESY.

STAFF-WORKERS

DEMO has taken and continues to take all protective measures imposed by the government for the safety of its workers and has even gone beyond them. It uses home-working wherever this is possible and has also introduced staggered work shifts, thus increasing the number of coach buses hired to transport its workers, in order to avoid crowding. Thousands of masks with the DEMO logo have been distributed to its employees, hand sanitiser “stations” have been created, signs reminding safety precautions were put up, plexiglass barriers have been installed between different office spaces, and outdoor smoking/lunch areas (kiosks) have been created. Furthermore, with their return to work in late August after their summer vacations and at the beginning of the new year 2021, all company workers got free Covid tests, while their family members were also offered discounted Covid tests. The cost of consumables, tests, transport and spatial rearrangements in 2020 exceeded €250,000.

SOCIETY & NGOs

In addition, DEMO has donated preparations, masks, consumables, medical equipment and fuel as well as laptops and tablets for use in remote education to 14 International and Greek NGOs, prisons, local communities and the Archdiocese. These support measures came to a total of €66,000.

EXPLOSION IN LEBANON

In the summer of 2020, following the deadly explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, the company immediately responded to the IFET’s (Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Technology) request by dispatching, on August 17, 16 palettes of hospital pharmaceutical supplies of a total value of €460,000. These were sent to the Directorate General of International Development Cooperation-Hellenic Aid and destined to Lebanon.

The deadly double explosion took place on August 4, at Warehouse 12, at the Beirut port and was triggered by 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate. More than 190 people lost their lives in the explosion at the port of the Lebanese capital, and 6,700 were injured, while the damages were estimated to amount to billions of euros. The needs of the residents and the medical staff of Beirut were huge, as over half the city’s hospitals were destroyed.

DEMO, as one of the leading factories in the production of injectables in Europe since 1965, is active in the national and international hospital supplies market, exporting to 85 countries. The company exports as much as 84% of its annual production, and is internationally recognised as one of the official suppliers of the United Nations, UNICEF, the World Health Organisation, Doctors without Borders (MSF) and the International Committee of the Red Cross. DEMO’s international sales department has been active in the market since 1985 and throughout these years it has made humanitarian aid contributions either to war zones through international organisations or in response to natural disasters by sending pharmaceutical supplies.

DEMO is pursuing its corporate social responsibility and support programme in 2021, its primary goals being to tackle the pandemic, support its workers and assist vulnerable groups and young children.