While U.S.-based pharmaceutical companies are working harder than they did two years ago to make medicines available to people in developing countries, European drug companies have maintained their overall lead in the area, according to the second Access to Medicine Index.

In the Index 2010, six of the ten highest-ranking originator companies are based in Europe, while four are U.S.-based. In 2008 when the first Index was published, three U.S. companies got a top-10 ranking.

The Index is the major tool used by the Access to Medicine Foundation, a Netherlands-based non-profit, to encourage pharmaceutical companies to improve their commitments and practices in helping poor people in developing countries gain access to medicine. The Access to Medicine Index analyzes and ranks the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies with respect to their efforts in this area.

Compared to 2008, pharma companies have given more insight into their policies and actions to increase people's access to medicines in developing countries, researchers say in a report underpinning the ranking. They identify more industry initiatives than two years ago, but also see room for improvement.

“The Access to Medicine Index independently assesses how individual pharmaceutical companies perform in promoting universal access to essential medicines, and is thus an important tool in improving performance,” says Carissa Etienne, Assistant Director-General at the World Health Organization.

The Access to Medicine Index ranks 20 of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies on their efforts to make sure that medicines are made for, and reach, people in developing countries. The ranking encourages drug companies to compete and offers investors and others a way to compare their social responsibility records.

“The 2010 ranking reveals important progress, if only because companies have shown far greater willingness to open up,” says Wim Leereveld, the Index's founder.
“The Index unveils great improvements, especially in the areas of research and development, and equitable pricing. At the same time, it shows that the industry as a whole still has a long way to go.”

The Access to Medicine Index 2010 identifies UK-based GlaxoSmithKline as current industry leader in improving access to needed medicines, followed by U.S. pharmaceutical Merck, Swiss pharma Novartis, U.S. biotech Gilead Sciences, and Sanofi-Aventis in France.

Gilead Sciences and Pfizer moved up strongly in the ranking as German pharma Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Germany’s Merck KGaA and Danish biopharmaceutical Novo Nordisk were down.

Generic drug makers, who do less research but produce low-cost off-patent drugs, now have a separate ranking. India’s Ranbaxy Laboratories and Cipla top the list of generics companies.

RiskMetrics ESG Analytics provided research for the report which may be accessed at http://www.accesstomedicineindex.org/