Access to Medicine Index Receives Grant to Benchmark Pharmaceutical Industry

The Access to Medicine Index (www.atmindex.org) announces that The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will support the Index by providing a $1 million grant. This funding will support an independent evaluation of major pharmaceutical companies' efforts to enhance access to vital medicines in order to promote global health.

Wim Leereveld, Chairman of the Access to Medicine Index: "We are very grateful for this support from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This is a major step forward in achieving our objectives. It not only enables us to expand our initiatives to engage the industry in improving their access to medicine practices. Moreover it provides important recognition for our efforts to showcase best practices and encourage pharmaceutical companies to inspire one another to do more."

The Access to Medicine Index ranks major pharmaceutical companies worldwide on their efforts to increase access to medicine in developing countries. The Index facilitates transparency in the pharmaceutical industry and offers guidance to improve access to medicine practices.

The first edition of the Index, released in June 2008, clearly illustrated wide disparities between companies in the pharmaceutical industry. This realization triggered numerous publications in the international financial and medical press, increasing awareness among company boards and stakeholders on the importance of this issue.

Millennium Goals
Increasing the ability of developing nations to access affordable and essential drugs in cooperation with the pharmaceutical industry is also part of the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals. Consequently, the Index anticipates commitments from additional institutions in the near future and is currently formulating a Millennium Agreement. The Index will continue to enlist the help and expertise of stakeholders on all sides of the issue for well-balanced and independent viewpoints.

Earlier Commitments
The Access to Medicine Index has received support from several governmental and non-governmental organisations including Oxfam Novib, Cordaid, Icco, Hivos, and SNS REAAL, The UK Department of International Development (DFID) and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.