A Helping Hand

The Search for a sustainable, affordable and complaint access strategy is a tough task but the gains outweigh the pains.

- Viveka Roychowdhury

There is no doubt that the pharmaceutical industry has a social commitment to public health. Many pharma companies do take this commitment seriously enough to invest considerable resources to reduce disease burden by increasing access to doctors, diagnostics, medication and a host of interventions. Their access strategies most often take the form of patient outreach programmes and health awareness campaigns through which they identify a health need and try to address gaps in current healthcare systems. Pharma companies have been part of global and national campaigns aimed at achieving public health goals, be it eradicating infectious diseases like polio, TB or HIV, or managing NCDs like diabetes.

But how effective are such interventions? Can they be replicated? Are they sustainable? And above all, are they above the needle of suspicion that they are but a means to access and penetrate new markets?

Since 2008, the Netherlands-based Access to Medicine Foundation's Access to Medicine Index has evolved into a barometer of effectiveness of these access programmes, at least for the 20 research-based pharma companies tracked by the Index. The Index analyses these companies on how they make medicines, vaccines and diagnostics more accessible in low- and middle-income countries. It also highlights best and innovative practices, and areas where progress has been made and where action is still required. Published every two years, the latest report released in December 2016 received financial support from the UK Government, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.