Some progress, but Big Pharma not moving fast enough to deliver access

The Access to Medicine Foundation has a message for the pharmaceutical industry: While the effort to get their products to people in low- and middle-income countries has accelerated, companies are not moving fast enough.

With the latest version of the Access to Medicine Index, released today, the foundation continues a biennial tradition of ranking 20 of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies based on how they prioritize access issues; target research and development toward diseases that disproportionately affect LMICs; and actually ensure that drugs and products reach the people who need them.

While some companies have accelerated their efforts, including Novartis, which shot to the top of the rankings after finishing fourth in 2022, the overall takeaway is “we expected the pace of industry progress to be higher,” Jayasree Iyer, CEO of the Access to Medicine Foundation, told Devex. Compared to the 2022 report, “the pace was not where it needs to be.”