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Compared to 2008, when the first Index was published, pharma companieshave given more insight into their policies and actions to increase people'saccess to medicines in developing countries, researchers say in a reportunderpinning the ranking. They identify more industry initiatives than twoyears ago, but also see room for improvement.
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"The Access to Medicine Index independently assesses how individualpharmaceutical companies perform in promoting universal access to essentialmedicines, and is thus an important tool in improving performance," said DrCarissa Etienne, Assistant Director-General at the World Health Organization(WHO).
"The 2010 ranking reveals important progress, if only because companieshave shown far greater willingness to open up. The Index unveils greatimprovements, especially in the areas of research and development, andequitable pricing. At the same time, it shows that the industry as a wholestill has a long way to go," said Wim Leereveld, the Index's founder.
The Access to Medicine Index ranks 20 of the world's largestpharmaceutical companies on their efforts to make sure that medicines aremade for, and reach, people in developing countries. The Index encouragesdrug companies to compete and offers investors and others a way to comparetheir social responsibility records.
The Access to Medicine Index 2010 identifies GlaxoSmithKline (U.K.) ascurrent industry leader in improving access to needed medicines. Following inits footsteps are Merck & Co. (U.S.), Novartis (Switzerland), Gilead Sciences(U.S.), and Sanofi-Aventis (France).
Gilead Sciences (U.S.) and Pfizer (U.S.) moved up strongly in theranking; Bayer (Germany), Bristol-Myers Squibb (U.S.), Merck KGaA (Germany)and Novo Nordisk (Denmark) were down.
In the Index 2010, six of the ten highest-ranking originator companiesare based in Europe, while four are U.S.-based. Two years ago, seven Europeancompanies got a top-10 ranking.
Also, generic drug makers, who do less research but produce low-costoff-patent drugs, now have a separate ranking. Ranbaxy Laboratories (India)and Cipla (India) top that list.
The Access to Medicine Index was created by the Access to MedicineFoundation, a Netherlands-based non-profit, and was researched by RiskMetricsESG Analytics, part of MSCI Inc., a global provider of investment decisionsupport tools.
http://www.atmindex.org
SOURCE Access to Medicine Index
