Pharmaceutical companies fall short in expanding access to low- and middle-income countries

In an article for Citizen Digital, Benjamin Muriuki reports on the release of the 2024 Access to Medicine Index, which assesses 20 of the largest pharmaceutical companies’ efforts to improve access to essential medicine in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), highlighting key takeaways from the report.

The article notes key areas where pharmaceutical companies must improve in order to close access gaps in LMICs, as detailed in the report – one being the decline in licensing agreements, which allow generic manufacturers to produce medicines made by large research-based pharmaceutical companies.

It also highlights key insights from the report’s research and development (R&D) Research Area, such as the fact that less than half of clinical trials (43%) are currently conducted in LMICs despite being home to the majority of the world’s population. This practice reduces the R&D-based pharma companies’ ability to derive insights specific to underserved populations during drug development, and additionally, reduces the likelihood of widespread availability in these regions once a product is introduced to market.

The article also mentions other recommendations from the report, such as the importance of data transparency, which is currently lacking, and prioritising diseases that disproportionately affect LMICs.