2020 Annual Report centres around programmatic work and COVID-19 engagement

The Foundation’s work was more relevant than ever in 2020, throughout the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Annual Reports highlights how the Foundation helped various global health stakeholders respond to the public health crisis, as well as highlighting the publication of two major reports: the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Benchmark and the Methodology for the Access to Medicine Index.

The global pandemic response

Through the year, the Foundation continued to stimulate good practice in creating a fair and equitable global pandemic response. It did so through its engagements with companies, investors and policymakers, as well as issuing a public statement urging companies to look beyond their role in vaccine R&D to consider access.

We also leveraged our research to shift industry standards and practices on infectious disease surveillance, gaps in access to medical oxygen, and the need for R&D for children with HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, among other urgent topics.

2020 AMR Benchmark

The year started with the launch of the second AMR Benchmark which found evidence of a few companies expanding efforts to tackle the spread of drug resistance. However, it also warned that change is not happening at the scale needed to radically impact the threat.

Before the launch, the Foundation worked closely with pharmaceutical companies through meetings and workshops to improve their performance on AMR. Using company-specific feedback, they pushed progress in areas like surveillance, research and development (R&D) incentives and access planning.

In broader policy discussions, key concerns included reliance on a few large companies, risks facing smaller firms and the potential role of generic medicine manufacturers in the AMR space.

Methodology for the 2021 Access to Medicine Index

Published in March, the newly developed methodology has a reduced framework of 33 indicators compared to 69 in 2018, with an increased emphasis on companies’ R&D and product delivery strategies that address affordability and supply.

The Research Team began preparing for the upcoming Index report took place in 2020, starting with data verification and analysis, with the final report set for publication in early 2021.

The 2020 Annual Report is now available for download.