The 2016 Access to Medicine Index has ranked GSK (UK) as leader, achieving a 3.43 general score, followed by Johnson & Johnson (US) and Novartis (Switzerland), with 2.93 and 2.87, respectively.
Implications | The 2016 Access to Medicine Index has assessed the extent to which a company's medicine access operations are needs-oriented, and where actions match specific priorities identified by, for instance, countries, the global health community, or the index. |
Outlook | Overall, moderate progress is visible in the pharmaceutical industry's efforts to improve access to medicine, especially in improving the way access activities are organised, development of relevant products, waiving of patent rights in the poorest countries, and granting manufacturers licences to make generic versions of their products. |
The Access to Medicine Foundation has released its 2016 Access to Medicine Index ranking the 20 research-based pharmaceutical firms that have been the most successful in making medicines, vaccines, and diagnostics more accessible in low- and middle-income countries. The period of analysis for the Index is 1 June 2014 to 31 May 2016.
The Index was based on 83 metrics to measure company performances relating to 51 high-burden diseases in 107 countries. The 2016 Index has a sharper focus on whether companies target their actions towards people with the greatest need for better access to medicine. The full report can be accessed here.
Overall, moderate progress is visible in the pharmaceutical industry's efforts to improve access to medicine. However, the Index has ranked GlaxoSmithKline (GSK, UK) as leader, achieving a 3.43 general score, followed by Johnson & Johnson (US) and Novartis (Switzerland), with 2.93 and 2.87, respectively.
Pharmaceutical company | Overall Ranking |
GlaxoSmithKline | 3.43 |
Johnson & Johnson | 2.93 |
Novartis | 2.87 |
Merck KGaA | 2.83 |
Merck & Co | 2.65 |
Sanofi | 2.58 |
AstraZeneca | 2.53 |
Gilead Sciences | 2.45 |
AbbVie | 2.39 |
Novo Nordisk | 2.35 |
Eisai Co | 2.34 |
Bayer | 2.03 |
Bristol-Myers Squibb | 1.97 |
Pfizer | 1.87 |
Takeda Pharmaceutical | 1.77 |
Boehringer Ingelheim | 1.7 |
Eli Lilly | 1.67 |
Daiichi Sankyo | 1.61 |
Roche Holding | 1.36 |
Astellas Pharma | 1.32 |
Source: Access to Medicine Foundation |
Following the top three, the remaining companies in the top 10 each showed strength in at least one area, and have capacity to improve access to medicine. AstraZeneca (UK) joins the top 10, with an expanded access strategy and notable pricing practices. AstraZeneca takes a transparent approach to IP management, disclosing how and where it will enforce patents or issue licences, and disclosing patent statuses. Takeda is also one of the highest risers, moving five places to 15th, with significant improvement in multiple areas.
However, Novo Nordisk (Denmark), Roche (Switzerland), and Gilead (US) have experienced the most substantial drops in the 2016 Access to Medicine Index ranking.
Outlook and implications
The top-three companies in the Index have well-organised access programmes. The leader GSK views access to medicine as a way of developing and driving business in emerging markets. GSK is developing the most R&D projects that target high-priority product gaps with low commercial incentive. It tops the Index for considering affordability when setting prices, and comes a close second in the access-enabling management of IP (see World: 20 September 2016: GSK outlines plans to address emerging global healthcare issues).
Johnson & Johnson, which was ranked second place, has established a new Global Public Health organisation to address global health problems in specific disease areas linking product development, manufacture, distribution, and capacity building (see World: 5 February 2016: Pfizer, J&J, Merck & Co assess vaccine technology capability for developing Zika vaccine).
In third place, Novartis has been recognised for its access-to-medicine strategy that addresses all socio-economic segments of the population, and it has one of the strongest relevant pipelines. The company has launched its "Novartis Access" business model, which meets stakeholder expectations (see Sub-Saharan Africa - Kenya: 16 October 2015: Kenya first country to implement "Novartis Access" strategy).
This 2016 Index also aligns with the recent World Health Organization (WHO)'s "Global Report on Access to Hepatitis C Treatment" report that highlighted the positive effect of licensing agreements and allowing generics in some low- and middle-income countries for access to latest-generation hepatitis C treatment (see World: 4 November 2016: WHO reports increasing availability of hepatitis C treatment in developing world).