GSK, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca person topped the latest Access to Medicines Index, which ranks the apical 20 largest pharmaceutical companies for their efforts to amended entree to medicines astir the world.
It is the eighth consecutive clip GSK has ranked archetypal connected the list, acknowledgment to a strategy for improving entree to medicine that applies to some R&D and transportation of products connected the market.
The 2022 scale recovered that much companies are addressing entree to medicine successful low- and middle-income countries since the Covid-19 pandemic emerged. For 77 percent of projects nearing the extremity of their R&D pipeline, companies present person a program to beforehand entree aft the merchandise launches, compared to conscionable 40 percent successful the 2021 index.
Source: Access for Medicines Foundation
Three much companies retired of the apical 20 present person astatine slightest 1 voluntary licence agreement, which enables on-patent products to beryllium made disposable for generic manufacturing.
The scale has been published each 2 years since 2008 by the Access to Medicine Foundation, a non-profit enactment based successful the Netherlands funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, Axa Investment Managers arsenic good arsenic Dutch and UK overseas ministries.
Assessing gaps successful access
Ashling Mulvaney, Vice President of Sustainability and Access to Healthcare astatine AstraZeneca, explains wherefore the database is important: “The Access to Medicine Index is the longest-running autarkic appraisal of the pharmaceutical industry’s actions to amended entree to medicine successful low- and middle-income countries. It ranks the companies, tracks progress, identifies champion practice, and demonstrates wherever enactment is urgently needed to amended entree to medicine for immoderate of the world’s astir susceptible populations.”
Mulvaney adds: “We worth the insights and guidance offered by the Access to Medicine Foundation arsenic portion of this index. Their insights are aligned with 1 of our halfway values of ‘putting patients first’.”
AstraZeneca performed good successful each 3 areas ranked by the index, peculiarly successful its attack to patent transparency, sharing the highest fig of intelligence spot assets with third-party researchers.
A targeted strategy to amended entree to medicines
Out of the 20 companies ranked, AstraZeneca was the person successful presumption of merchandise delivery, by implementing targeted entree strategies for countries of antithetic incomes.
Mulvaney comments: “Access to healthcare is a cardinal sustainability pillar wrong our institution strategy. Of peculiar note, we were recognised arsenic the manufacture person successful the merchandise transportation category. In this class we were commended for our exertion of tailored entree strategies for antithetic countries reflecting their income classifications crossed each merchandise categories. We were besides recognized for our attack to patent transparency and sharing of intelligence spot assets, utilizing exertion transfers, helping to guarantee the continuous proviso of medicines successful low-and middle-income countries.”
The scale besides noted AstraZeneca’s piloting of caller and scaled-up existing inclusive concern models to amended proviso concatenation capacity. Mulvaney adds: “The scale recognized AstraZeneca’s section capableness gathering initiatives and usage of inclusive concern models, aimed astatine gathering the entree needs of populations astatine the basal of the income pyramid.”
Quick links
- Pfizer to proviso each its medicines to low-income countries for nary profit
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