Drug firms ‘must prioritise underserved patients’

The article opens with a quote from Jayasree K. Iyer, CEO of the Foundation, emphasising the need for companies to monitor how products are distributed to underserved patients globally. It quotes her saying: “If patient reach is not as a theme an important topic discussed at the top level of a company, then you’re making your products only to make money out of your products." 

The article pinpoints a finding from the report: among 42 patient reach approaches identified by 19 companies, 13 lack any specific objectives. But even for the companies that have set up approaches towards reaching underserved patient groups, the report points out that “merely having targets is not enough, the quality of these goals also matters”.

The article quotes Jayasree, who highlights that currently the biggest gap is in tackling non-communicable diseases. For diabetes specifically, while major insulin manufacturers—Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi—control over 90% of the market share and have pledged to expand access to their products in LMICs. Yet, their commitments currently only reach 1% of the diabetes prevalence in over 100 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).