E-DRUG: Now online: Methodology for the 2016 Access to Medicine Index
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Dear E-drug colleagues,
I'm pleased to inform you that the Methodology for the 2016 Access to
Medicine Index is now online.
The Access to Medicine Index analyses the top 20 research-based
pharmaceutical companies with products for high-burden diseases in low- and
middle-income countries. The Index ranks these companies according to their
efforts to improve access to medicine. It identifies best practices,
highlights where progress is being made, and uncovers where critical action
is still required. In this way, the Index provides both an incentive and a
guide for pharmaceutical companies to do more for the two billion people
worldwide who still lack access to medicine. The 2016 Access to Medicine
Index will be published late next year.
The 2015 methodology was developed through careful review, together with
members of our Technical sub-committees, our Expert Review Committee, and a
wide range of experts working in global health. We have spent the past
months challenging theories and dogmas, analysing companies' past behaviour
and putting the most critical areas of the Index under the magnifying
glass. I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in this process.
MORE EMPHASIS ON PERFORMANCE
The result is a bolder set of metrics for 2016, with a heavier emphasis on
company performance. Performance will now count for 50% of the overall
weighting of the 2016 Index, with commitment reduced to 15%.
KEY CHANGES
A new measurement of needs-based pricing: The 2016 Index will map
companies' pricing actions against disease burdens and inequality,
assessing how companies customise pricing strategies according to
socio-economic factors. This will allow for more rigorous benchmarking of
company pricing behaviour and an analysis of how they differentiate
strategies according to patients' needs and ability to pay.
More recognition for R&D with no viable market: The 2016 Index will
specifically look at company efforts to engage in R&D for products with
weak or absent markets. The methodology gives additional credit to R&D
projects that address high-need, non-commercial product gaps.
A closer analysis of access strategies in middle-income countries:
Middle-income countries increasingly face high levels of socio-economic inequality. In
response, the 2016 Index will look at pricing actions in countries where
both the burden of disease and inequality are comparatively high. In
licensing, the 2016 Index will look more closely at whether and how
companies license products for manufacture and distribution in
middle-income countries.
SCOPE OF THE 2016 INDEX
* The 2016 Index will measure the same 20 companies as the 2014 Index, as
they remain the largest R&D-based pharmaceutical companies with the most
relevant expertise and portfolios.
* The geographic scope now totals 107 countries: a handful of countries
have moved out of scope, as socio-economic conditions have improved, while
others (Iran, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama and Peru) have moved into scope.
* The disease scope for the 2016 Index comprises 50 conditions and
diseases. We now use the WHO Global Health Observatory 2012 DALY estimates
for both communicable and non-communicable diseases. Three non-communicable
diseases (anxiety disorders, migraine and hypertensive heart disease) and
one communicable disease (syphilis) are now within scope.
DOWNLOAD THE REPORT (PDF):
http://www.accesstomedicineindex.org/sites/2015.atmindex.org/files/2015methodology_2016accesstomedicineindex_accesstomedicinefoundation_0.pdf
WHO WE ARE
The Access to Medicine Foundation stimulates the pharmaceutical industry to
increase access to medicine in low- and middle-income countries. It builds
stakeholder consensus on how companies can improve access, which form the
basis of its widely regarded benchmarks of industry activity. The
Foundation's flagship publication is the Access to Medicine Index, the only
Index to rank the world's largest pharma companies on their policies and
practices relating to access to medicine. The Access to Medicine Foundation
is an independent, not-for-profit organisation.
We hope you find this methodology, the 2014 Index, and the more recent
studies we have published useful in your work. We would welcome your
reactions and views on the 2015 Methodology.
Kind regards,
Jay
Jayasree K Iyer (Mrs), PhD
Executive Director
*Access to Medicine Foundation
Scheepmakersdijk 5A, 2011 AS
Haarlem
The Netherlands*
Office: +31 (0) 23 533 91 87
Mobile: +31 (0)646 811 414
ayasree Iyer <jiyer@atmindex.org>