The Challenge: Human Rights Risk Hidden Deep in a Global Supply Chain
AstraZeneca's supply chain spans thousands of suppliers and sub-suppliers, many operating in regions or sectors with elevated human rights risks. Like most large global enterprises, the company's direct visibility ended at its immediate vendor relationships—leaving the deeper tiers of its network largely opaque. The challenge was not simply one of awareness, but of scale: identifying specific, actionable human rights risks buried layers deep within a complex global supply chain, and tracing those risks back to the direct partners most exposed to compliance challenges. Traditional tools were not built for this level of depth. Supplier questionnaires provide a static snapshot in time and cannot capture rapidly changing risk conditions. Spreadsheet-based processes burn team hours and introduce control risk. And with overlapping regulations such as UFLPA, EUFLR, CSDDD, and CSRD all demanding defensible evidence, AstraZeneca needed a platform that could deliver verifiable, auditable intelligence at scale—without overwhelming its compliance team or its supplier base. The stakes were high. Failure to identify forced labor, trafficking exposure, or human rights violations deep in the supply chain carries significant regulatory, reputational, and operational consequences. AstraZeneca required a rigorous, data-driven prioritization framework—one that could surface the highest-risk nodes across thousands of supplier relationships and point the compliance team toward the entities that truly mattered.
FRDM ingested AstraZeneca's procurement data and used proprietary relational mapping to trace supplier connections five to six tiers deep—no supplier outreach required.
The core focus of the partnership was uncovering specific human rights risks buried deep in AstraZeneca's supply chain and mapping exact, traceable paths back to the high-risk sub-suppliers. FRDM AI ingested AstraZeneca's procurement and supplier data at the Tier 1 level and used proprietary relational mapping tools to trace connections five to six tiers deep in the supply chain. This revealed concerning entities far beyond AstraZeneca's direct visibility—such as manufacturers sourcing forced-labor-linked raw materials or operating in high-risk regions. Once deep-tier entities were mapped, FRDM AI spotlighted those with the most serious human rights warnings using structured risk intelligence. Each high-risk node—whether flagged for forced labor, trafficking, or supply chain-linked abuses—was paired with a clear chain of custody tracing back to AstraZeneca's direct suppliers. To support prioritization, FRDM AI enriched each mapped node with multi-dimensional risk scores drawing on country risk indices (such as governance and labor law enforcement), sector and commodity risk data (including high-risk manufacturing, mica, and cobalt), geospatial proximity to trafficking routes or conflict zones, and human rights benchmarks such as the Global Slavery Index and TIP Report. Scores were tuned to AstraZeneca's specific risk appetite and compliance priorities. All findings were delivered through FRDM AI's interactive platform, featuring path tracing tools to follow high-risk entities through five or more tiers, visual supply maps annotated with risk events and severity scores, and custom reports built for compliance teams, executive visibility, and public ESG disclosures. Critically, this entire mapping process required no direct contact with suppliers—FRDM's AI-powered discovery engine identified connections autonomously, eliminating supplier fatigue while dramatically accelerating time to insight.
Within a test group of 149 suppliers, just 8 entities accounted for more than 90% of all identified human rights warnings.
The outcomes of the AstraZeneca-FRDM engagement were both statistically striking and operationally transformative. Within a test group of 149 suppliers, the deep-tier analysis revealed that just 8 entities accounted for over 90% of the identified human rights warnings. This extreme concentration of risk meant that AstraZeneca could redirect virtually all of its due diligence resources toward a tiny fraction of its supplier base—achieving a 94.6% reduction in due diligence costs without sacrificing compliance rigor. This level of specificity enabled AstraZeneca to prioritize engagement, focus due diligence efforts, and align remediation strategies with the most credible and material risks. Rather than spreading resources thin across hundreds of suppliers with unknown risk profiles, the compliance team could now act with precision—targeting the exact entities and supply paths that presented the greatest exposure. The result was a shift from abstract ESG concern to concrete accountability and actionable remediation steps. As ESG expectations and regulatory scrutiny continue to increase—driven by laws such as the EU Forced Labor Regulation (EUFLR) and the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), as well as evolving corporate disclosure requirements—this work helps position AstraZeneca to meet those demands with defensible, data-driven action. The engagement demonstrated that deep-tier supply chain intelligence is not just a compliance tool, but a strategic asset that fundamentally changes the economics of responsible sourcing.
The platform's ability to deliver Tier 4, 5, and 6 visibility through a user-friendly interface was the deciding factor.
In AstraZeneca's own words, the decision to work with FRDM came down to capability and usability. The compliance team was specifically looking for tools that could help them dig further into their supply chain than any previous solution had allowed—reaching into tiers four, five, and six with clarity and confidence. FRDM's application offered a user-friendly platform that helps organizations track and address human rights risks effectively, making complex, multi-tier supply networks navigable and actionable for teams of any size. FRDM's approach is built on independently sourced data and AI-driven modeling, enabling intelligence to be generated without burdening suppliers with surveys or outreach. The platform continuously monitors risk at every stage of production, scanning data sources daily and providing real-time alerts when action is required. For a global biopharmaceutical company like AstraZeneca—operating under intense regulatory scrutiny and public ESG expectations—this combination of depth, speed, and defensibility made FRDM the clear choice for next-generation supply chain due diligence.
*not sales material disguised as 'resources.'