The 2010 Access to Medicine Index, the only Index to rank the efforts of pharmaceutical companies in providing global access to medicine, is to be published this June in Amsterdam.
The first Index, published in 2008, revealed GSK as the company most active in improving patients’ access to medicines around the world.
The Access to Medicine Foundation have also publically released the 2010 methodology report, which includes significant changes to increase the robustness of the index and bring it in line with current changes to global access to medicine priorities.
Since 2008, the Index has gained new financial supporters including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UK Department for International Development.
Wim Leereveld, Chairman of the Foundation, said: “We have gone through an extensive process of stakeholder feedback and have incorporated various enhancements put forward by both industry and other relevant stakeholders including increasing the total number of data points to just over one hundred.
“We look forward to presenting the new Index in Amsterdam this June to an audience of industry leaders, academics, ministers, NGO’s, investors and media. The theme of our presentation will be straightforward: 4.8 billion people have access to medicine; 2 billion to go.”
The Index identifies and measures the efforts of drug companies that are doing the most to provide access to medicine. The Foundation hopes to encourage pharmaceutical companies to share best practices and explore broader internal corporate responsibility policies.