Using bioethics to support healthcare innovation for patients

Bioethics is a discipline that takes the principles of ethics and applies them to biological research, science and medicine. Using a bioethical lens to support decision-making around complicated issues can help translate science and research into balanced outcomes that advance health for everyone. It can also inform ethical and just applications of new science, technological and therapeutic breakthroughs.

A scientist using a pipette to add liquid to samples in a lab

How we apply bioethics in our work

These are some of the ways we apply bioethics in our work. We also share our learnings and collaborate with like-minded partners to advance bioethical standards across the healthcare industry.

Compassionate Use Advisory Committee (CompAC)

Provides guidance to Janssen on compassionate use requests for investigational medicines, enabling an equitable, fair and ethical evaluation of requests

The Yale University Open Data Access (YODA) Project

Provides an independent and transparent approach for assessing external requests for the use of clinical trial data from the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies

Ethics-based framework

Developed during the COVID-19 pandemic to guide the allocation of the supply of our products that we were studying for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19

Bioethics can guide us on critical questions that we encounter in our work, such as how we should design clinical studies, how and when we should share our research findings, or how we can make medicines available to people who need them.

Karla Childers

Head, Bioethics-based Science & Technology Policy, Johnson & Johnson

Two OCMO safety officials watching product safety testing through glass window in a facility

Helping our teams make informed decisions

Johnson & Johnson is committed to ensuring that our employees have the resources to help them address difficult and complex bioethical questions that may arise during their day-to-day work.

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To this end, Johnson & Johnson’s Office of the Chief Medical Officer (OCMO) oversees our internal bioethics education program and also sponsors our global Johnson & Johnson Bioethics Committee (JJBC). The JJBC is responsible for advocating adherence to bioethical principles, providing an expert forum for teams to obtain guidance on bioethical issues, and for championing our commitment to ethical decision-making across Johnson & Johnson.

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A strong foundation to guide our approach

Johnson & Johnson’s bioethics approach is guided by the fundamental principles of bioethics and Our Credo, which challenges us to put the needs and well-being of the people we serve first.It’s also informed by our Position on Bioethics and our Ethical Code for the Conduct of Research and Development, which complement our Credo by providing more specific standards of conduct and behavior for physicians, clinical research scientists and others who are responsible for medical aspects of research and development.

Johnson & Johnson's Our Credo at the company's headquarters in New Brunswick, NJ

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