To create a stable and appealing work environment for talent retention, we incentivize the development of internal talent through various programs and policies. We regularly refer to the Global Culture Report and conduct surveys to understand our employees' expectations and work towards continuous improvement. In addition, we systematically cultivate and attract external talents through corporate internships, government projects, and other initiatives. Our goal is to establish a globally operable and talent-focused structure that emphasizes localization, gender equality, inclusivity, and talent retention.

Employee Structure and Gender Equality

• Gender Equality：

  • 2022 GEI Report

• In Taiwan region：

  The growth rate of all personnel in Taiwan is 30.9%, the number of male and female employees is equivalent. The proportion of local talent employed in senior management positions (middle management, senior management, and executive management) is over 94% . The overall age range of employees is dominated by young and middle-aged adults aged 30-50, with most employees having 5-10 years of service.

  

• In the US region：

  As the company enters the global commercialization of operations, our US subsidiary spans product marketing, medical clinical trials, and administrative operations departments, with diverse employee races and nationalities. In 2022, the total number of employees continued to grow by 43%, has a near gender-balanced artio , and female executives slightly higher than men.

  

Competitive and Fair Compensation

• PharmaEssentia is fair in its payment of wages to all employees and conducts an annual salary review and survey to gauge market salary levels and overall economic indicators. Based on the achievement of annual business objectives, individual performance assessments and outsourced salary and benefit surveys, PharmaEssentia provides performance-based pay raises, promotions and structured pay adjustments, offering salaries above industry standards.To develop our human resources, we offer diverse profit-sharing mechanisms to retain talent in addition to providing competitive compensation, such as issuing employee stock options, restricted stock units, and cash capital increase employee stock options to attract and retain outstanding professionals. These incentives encourage employees to innovate and improve the operational performance of the company to achieve sustainable management goals.

• In the past 3 years, the total salary and average salary of full-time employees who are not in management positions (excluding managers) have both significantly increased, demonstrating the company's success in providing salary incentives to middle and high-level talent as well as promotions to employees, and continuously adjusting salaries for grassroots-level employees.

  

Human Rights Management Approach

PharmaEssentia adheres to regulations regarding in all of its global operating locations in order to protect the rights and interests of its employees, as well as to the spirit and principles of human rights protection enshrined in various international human rights conventions, such as the United Nations Global Compact, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Labour Organization Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. PharmaEssentia requires its partners to prohibit any behavior that violates human rights, such as the employment of child labor or the coercion of employees, to ensure that all internal and external members of our company treated justly and with dignity. We have established a Human Rights Policy to uphold the protection of basic human rights of all employees.

Human Rights Risk Assessment and Investigation Procedures

• All of our major suppliers adhere to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and value human rights. In terms of security management, we have tasked a professional security company to take full responsibility in keeping our systems secure. We also promote diversity and equality, and look forward to providing employment opportunities for colleagues of indigenous heritage in the future. We plan to require our partners to commit to ensuring the rights of all workers, including their freedom of association and bargaining rights.

• Our US subsidiary not only follows the group's Human Rights Policy, but also developed an employee handbook tailored to local needs. It clearly sets out regulations related to anti-discrimination, anti-harassment, complaints, employee behavior correction and disciplinary action, and complies with relevant federal and Massachusetts state laws to ensure fairness in opportunity as well as security for employees. In case of any incidents, employees can directly file complaints through online channels or a compliance hotline. No such incidents occurred in 2022.

Annual implementation of Human Right Management

Transparent Internal Communication and Complaint Channels

• Human Rights Policy
• Regulations for Establishing Measures of Prevention ,Correction, Compliant and Punishment of Sexual Harassment at Workplace
• Codes of Ethical Conduct
• Principles of Ethical Corporate Management

Management approach on Talent Development

PharmaEssentia values the growth and development of its employees, and closely integrates core competencies with individual talent and organizational development strategies. As we enhance our human capital to effectively utilize human resources and achieve the company's business goals, we also help employees enhance their professional expertise and improve their management skills, so that their careers can continuously develop and that a win-win situation is created for everyone. And invest millions of New Taiwan Dollars in talent training and development, strengthen the HR cloud management system, and promote digital learning platforms. The Taichung Plant established the School of PharmaEssestia, which focuses on training and knowledge transfer for new production process employees.

Employee Training and Development Targets

• Through intensive on-the-job training, multiple learning channels, and overseas training for quality personnel, PEC strives to develop professional talents in the biomedical field.And supplemented by the Mentor Program to upgrade the efficiency of our human resources management and reserve leadership for long-term sustainable management. Promotion rate for supervisory positions from internal staff is 29% and Manager retention rate is 84.8% in 2022.

• In Taiwan region , we conducted a total of 1,948.6 hours of internal training and a total of 1,315.5 hours of external training, with a total expenditure of NT$841,911 on external training.

• In the US region, the US subsidiary provides training on compliance with relevant laws and regulations, product-related training, and information security-related training in accordance with the regulations of each department. Every employee must pass these training sessions before interacting with external stakeholders. Not only did they conduct dozens of legal compliance education training sessions, but they also conducted a total of 599 hours of training related to Information Security education.

  

People-Oriented Recruitment Policy

PharmaEssentia has a people-oriented recruitment policy. We attract and retain outstanding talents through competitive compensation and benefits, a friendly environment, humane management, obstacle-free internal job rotation, and training and development opportunities. In addition to Taiwan, we have locations in multiple countries around the world, with a diverse workforce serving the company. The HR department is responsible for executing human resource analysis and providing bi-weekly reports on the company's human resource structure and recruitment status to senior executives in order to create a sound foundation for recruitment practices. 

Performance Assessment and Promotion System

Performance management at PharmaEssentia is based on driving organizational growth, establishing a fair and objective performance assessment system that is aligned with the company's strategic development, and respecting the diversity of its employees, whatever their race, gender or age may be.The completion rate of performance evaluations for all full-time male and female employees in various job categories is also 100%.

Diverse Employee Benefits System

PharmaEssentia established a Welfare Committee to plan employee welfare activities in collaboration with the company in 2013. The committee meets four times annually. In Taiwan, we spent approximately NT$3.33 million on employee welfare, an increase of 32% from the previous year, and a total of 571 employees applied for various welfare benefits. We have developed and implemented a workplace plan for supporting our employees' family planning, including marriage, childbirth, and child-rearing. For three consecutive years, the retention and return-to-work rates of employees taking parental leave in Taiwan have reached 100%, and the implementation rate of our maternal health protection plan has also been 100%.

Hiring New Employees and Employee Retention

We actively recruit talents in the fields of biopharmaceuticals, research and development, clinical medicine, and global management. Job competency and core functions are our main criteria for talent recruitment, and we adhere to the spirit of non-discrimination and fair treatment. We use diverse and open recruitment channels to select qualified talents.The category of talents we particularly focus on are scientists and research personnel. In 2022, PharmaEssentia recruited over 19 research and medical research experts, accounting for 6.6% of the total number of employees.

• In Taiwan region:

  Over the past three years, the overall personnel growth rate of PharmaEssentia has continued to grow steadily. In 2022, we increased the number of personnel in research and development and production to meet the demand for expanded business. The proportion of internal promotions for managerial positions was as high as 84.62% for frontline supervisors, and around 50% for middle and high-level managers, establishing a virtuous cycle for talent development, promotion, and retention.

  

• In the US region:

  In the past three years, our US subsidiary has been recruited new talents significantly in response to market demand for operational development. However, in 2021, due to the delay in obtaining FDA drug license until November, the number of employees voluntarily leaving also increased in the current year. In 2022, due to the successful FDA approval, US subsidiary actively promoted various operational businesses and adhered to the spirit of gender equality and racial diversity, continue to optimize recruitment, selection, talent development, and retention systems. The retention rate of employees has significantly increased in 2022.

  

Employee Satisfaction Survey

In 2022, our US subsidiary conducted an employee satisfaction survey, with 94 employees participating and an average satisfaction score of 4.2 out of 5. In Taiwan, we also use surveys to understand what our employees’ actual needs are as a basis for safeguarding and improving our key areas of concern.

In Taiwan region：

In 2022, we carried out three major public welfare projects. The first project involved sponsoring the Jane Goodall Institute to replace old refrigerants with environmentally friendly ones, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The second project involved sponsoring a telehealth promotion program for disadvantaged elderly people to resolve the issue of insufficient medical services in rural areas. The third project involved sponsoring the annual charity concert of the OneSong Orchestra for the fourth consecutive year, promoting a new ecosystem of inclusiveness and shared prosperity.

In the US region：

The US subsidiary of PharmaEssentia focused on the healthcare industry in 2022 to create a better community, launching a patient financial assistance program to provide partial payment or insurance support for patients who need BESREMi but deal with financial difficulties. This program includes free copay cards and emergency medications to help patients who do not have access to medication due to delayed insurance payments or insufficient insurance coverage. In addition, free medication was provided for patients without insurance or insufficient coverage. Our US subsidiary also invested $25,000 in 2022 to provide cancer kits to Boston residents through the Boston Cares charitable organization, and encouraged employees to participate in community activities by providing paid volunteer leave. This year, a total of 80 employees participated in volunteer activities, with a total of 160 hours of volunteer work.

Implementation of Occupational Health and Safety

Following the Occupational Health & Safety Policy of PharmaEssentia, we continue to enhance our employees' health management and promotion measures, covering a total of full-time employees (including the Taichung Plant) with a coverage rate of 100%. In order to create a safe, healthy, and zero-accident work environment, we plan to introduce the ISO 45001 Occupational Health & Safety Management System in 2023.

Occupational Health Services

• We are committed to reducing occupational health risks and creating a working environment that enables employees to have physical and mental well-being, health, and happiness. Taichung Plant and Taipei Head Office have both obtained the " Health Workplace Certification/Health Promotion Label ", affirming our commitment to protecting the health of our employees.

  

• PharmaEssentia’s emphasis on occupational health and safety is based on the Labor Health Protection Regulations and the Occupational Safety and Health Act. In 2022, two health seminars were held, namely "No More Metabolic Syndrome" and "Office Ergonomics and Stretching Exercise", with 75 and 66 participants, respectively, to enhance our employees' awareness of the three major risk factors to health and encourage them to focus on daily prevention and healthcare.

• Annual implementation of Workplace Health Promotion:

  

In Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Workplace Safety and Accident Prevention Mechanism

Our company has established various " Labor Safety and Health Work Guidelines " based on the nature of business activities in various operating regions to respond to various emergency events and prevent work safety incidents, such as " Emergency Response Procedures ", " Important Facility Operator Test”, “Factory Health and Safety Regulations”, “Contractor Entry & Operation”, Logistics Center Safety Management Operating Procedures”, and” Emergency Response Handling Operating Procedures”, etc. Employees regularly receive on-the-job safety and health education training, and emergency drills to ensure the health and safety of all personnel in the plant.

In 2022, there was only one incident of occupational injury event that occurred at Taichung Plant. An employee was injured in the foot when a steel plate slipped during observation of plant operations. The employee resumed work the following week. In response to this isolated incident, the relevant equipment was checked, and improvements were made to fix the groove that caused the accident. It was also stipulated that employees must wear steel-toed cleanroom shoes during operations to ensure their safety.

2022 Biological Safety Emergency Response Exercise

Contractor Safety Management