Research Ethics

Our responsibility to people begins in our laboratories. But it doesn’t end there. At all stages of the development and use of our medicines, Lilly strives to maintain the highest standards of ethical behaviour. Lilly was one of the first pharmaceutical companies to have established a standing bioethics committee and later a dedicated bioethics programme. Our bioethics programme is designed to address the increasingly complex and fast-paced ethical challenges of global pharmaceutical research, development and commercialisation to protect and advocate for the rights and well-being of research participants and patients, and the integrity of the scientific process and its applications for healthcare.

Learn more about our research ethics on our Global Principles of Medical Research page.

Animal Care and Use

Regulations that govern the approval of new medicines dictate that all potential treatments be evaluated in animals prior to testing in humans. The reason for this is that human and animal physiology is so complex, that to-date, non-animal research models cannot tell us all we need to know about how a potential new treatment functions in a human. Therefore, without animal research, it would not be possible to bring innovative medicines to the people who need them.

Further information about Lilly’s global approach to animal care and use can be found on our Global Animal Care and Use page.