2015 Methodology for the 2016 Access to Medicine Index

For almost ten years now, the Access to Medicine Foundation has built stakeholder consensus on what we can expect from pharmaceutical companies. This report describes the key dilemmas, discussions and outcomes of the most recent phase of consensus building, and how they translate into the methodology for the next Access to Medicine Index. In 2015, the emphasis has shifted further towards measuring performance where it matters.

The Access to Medicine Index analyses the top 20 research-based pharmaceutical companies with products for high-burden diseases in low- and middle-income countries. The Index ranks these companies according to their efforts to improve access to medicine. It identifies best practices, highlights where progress is being made, and uncovers where critical action is still required. In this way, the Index provides both an incentive and a guide for pharmaceutical companies to do more for the two billion people worldwide who still lack access to medicine.

The Index is the product of a rigorous methodology for benchmarking companies’ access-to-medicine performances against stakeholder expectations for company behaviour. This methodology is reviewed every two years with input from experts working across the access-to-medicine field. These reviews align the methodology with evolving global health priorities, while continually reinforcing and reining the Index metrics in key areas. This report describes the outcome of the latest review, and translates the methodology into a set of ambitious, yet achievable and clear expectations for pharmaceutical company behaviour in each area measured by the Access to Medicine Index.