Ohio
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0-14902
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31-0888197
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(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)
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(Commission File Number)
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(IRS Employer Identification No.)
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3471 River Hills Drive,
Cincinnati, Ohio
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45244
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(Address of principal executive offices)
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(Zip code)
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Eric S. Rasmussen (513) 271-3700
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(Name and telephone number, including area code,
of the person to contact in connection with this report.)
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Date: May 23, 2019
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MERIDIAN BIOSCIENCE, INC.
By: /s/ Eric S. Rasmussen
Eric S. Rasmussen
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
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Gastrointestinal Assays – Includes tests
for the following, among others: C. difficile, Enterohemorrhagic
E. coli, Campylobacter jejuni (Campy), H. pylori, Cryptosporidium, giardia lamblia, and calprotectin.
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Respiratory Illness Assays – Includes tests
for the following, among others: Group A Streptococcus (strep throat), Influenza, M. pneumoniae (Mycoplasma), Bordetella pertussis (whooping cough), and
respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
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Blood Chemistry Assays – Tests for elevated
lead levels in blood.
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Other Assays – Includes tests for the
following, among others: Group B Streptococcus, Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhea, Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 & Type 2, and Malaria.
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The Company adopted a formal policy that reflects Meridian's goal of complying with the statutory and regulatory requirements.
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Meridian established a governance structure to oversee the implementation and ongoing management of the Conflict Minerals Compliance
Program. The governance structure develops, documents and maintains program work products to enable sustainable compliance and actively mitigates the risk of not meeting regulatory requirements.
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Meridian implemented a process to evaluate parts and suppliers in the supply chain for potential conflict minerals risk, a process
that in the future may include making modifications to supplier contract language and supplier expectations.
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Meridian has communicated its policy regarding conflict minerals to in-scope suppliers and reviewed supplier responsibilities within
the supply chain.
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Meridian utilizes its established complaint policy for concerns regarding the Company's sourcing and use of conflict minerals in its
products.
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Products were reviewed by subject matter experts from the respective business units to obtain clarifying information on the presence
of conflict minerals; expert information was applied to the list of products to remove inapplicable items.
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Meridian required in-scope and potentially in-scope suppliers to complete a survey based on the Responsible Minerals Initiative's
("RMI") Conflict Minerals Reporting Template ("CMRT").
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Meridian conducted a review of supplier responses to determine that all required questions and sections of the CMRT were completed and
followed up with any supplier that did not complete all required questions.
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Meridian reviewed survey responses and validated them for completeness and sufficiency. Based on this review, each survey was assigned
a conflict minerals status code.
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Meridian conducted a review of summary smelter information provided to determine if smelters listed are certified as conflict free or
present a "red flag" as defined by the OECD Guidance. To make the determination of each smelter's conflict status, Meridian relied upon information provided by RMI.
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Meridian plans to develop a risk mitigation strategy with the goal of systematically reducing the extent of exposure to certain risk
and the likelihood of its occurrence.
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Meridian will consider the risk to its supply chain and take appropriate steps.
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Additional fact finding, risk assessments, and changes in circumstances may take place as part of Meridian's annual review of the
conflict minerals process.
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Various industry organizations have developed, or are in the process of developing, processes and procedures to satisfy this
requirement, including activities such as appointing auditors and defining the terms of audits in line with the standards and processes set out in the OECD Guidance. In light of this fact, Meridian intends to participate in and fully
support the efforts of such organizations, including joining and/or building partnerships with them as necessary and appropriate.
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Meridian implemented a process to summarize, review, and approve compliance results and completion of the Form Specialized Disclosure
and the Conflict Minerals Report and timely file this report with the SEC.
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Meridian is unable to determine and to describe with certainty the facilities used to process those necessary conflict minerals.
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Suppliers responding to our inquiries indicated in their response that the information provided was at a company or divisional level
and did not include a list of smelters and, therefore, Meridian was unable to determine their country of origin.
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Consistent with the OECD Guidance for downstream companies such as Meridian, the Company's efforts to determine the mine or location
of origin of necessary conflict minerals with the greatest possible specificity included our due diligence measures described above and were not conclusive.
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