How To Guide For: A Look At How Drug Companies Are Working Towards Improving Global Access To Medici

According to the World Health Organization at least 2 billion people don’t have access to medicines they need. So how do we change this? The Access to Medicine Foundation(AMF) a non-profit organization compiles the biennial index of drug companies and publishes the Access to Medicine Index every two years, providing a transparent ranking of major pharmaceutical companies’ individual efforts to improve access to medicine. Their methodology evaluates seven factors (including Research & Development (R&D), Pricing and Product Donations) across four pillars (Commitments, Transparency, Performance and Innovation). Their aim is to highlight and encourage positive conduct. When the Access to Medicine Fund published their 2016 overall ranking (page 8) GlaxoSmithKline came in first place followed by Johnson & Johnson and Novartis AG rounded out the top three. According to Wim Leereveld Founder and CEO of Access to Medicine Index, one of the reasons that GlaxoSmithKline tops the index is that they decided to judge, to measure their own employees, their own directors in developing countries on how many patients they reach instead of how much profit they make. This shifts the focus from profits to people in regions where access to medicine is still a matter of life or death. GlaxoSmithKline the British pharmaceutical company plans to increase medicine accessibility in low-income countries by granting licenses to generic manufacturers. This is a start in improving global access to medicine. To get more in depth information click on the pictures below to read the articles.