5 billion people have access to medicine 2 billion to go

The Access to Medicine Index is a very important project. What gets measured, gets done.

When I talk to executives from pharmaceutical companies they tell me that they want to do more for neglected diseases, but they at least need to get credit for it. The Access to Medicine Index does exactly that.

The Access to Medicine Index mobilizes the strength of the private sector, impacting the lives of millions of the most vulnerable people on earth. It showcases the synergy of aid, trade and investment.

There is more that we can do and are doing. This year, the index is tougher than ever. It challenges us to think harder about how we drive innovation and enable access to our products. This is a challenge that we are ready and willing to take on. We will continue to push ourselves to go further and faster to make sure our medicines and vaccines reach more people.

The first ever Access to Vaccines Index has the potential to be a powerful tool to measure efforts made by vaccine manufacturers to help improve immunisation in countries with the highest need, this Index can help to identify product gaps as well as challenges on affordability, pricing policy transparency, research and development, and supply, to drive positive change and reach more people with life-saving vaccines.

Licensing agreements between pharmaceutical companies and the Medicines Patent Pool can benefit 87-94% of people living with HIV in the developing world, and produce up to USD1.4 billion of savings for the international community. The Access to Medicine Foundation incentivizes companies to engage with us and is one of our key partners to achieve impact.

The success of GHIT reveals that Japanese pharmaceutical companies are more willing than ever to participate in much-needed global health R&D partnerships. The Access to Medicine Foundation recognizes this and continues to drive forward global health in partnership with industry.

The work of the Access to Medicine Foundation is powerful because it shows how pharmaceutical companies can and should integrate access to medicine into their business strategies. This empowers local civil society organizations to advocate for more sustainable initiatives.