Many large pharmaceutical companies are taking steps to improve access to their medicines in low- and middle-income countries, but progress has been mixed and more action is needed to ensure wide availability, a new analysis found.
Notably, more drugmakers are planning to reach patients before a product launch — access plans now cover 69% of late-stage pipeline candidates compared with 18% in 2018. And across the pipeline, 95% of late-stage experimental drugs developed with a nonprofit partner have an access plan in place, versus 67% without such a partner.
Another bright spot involves cancer treatments. Access plans now cover 65% of cancer drugs in product pipelines, up from 5% in 2018. But 43% of access plans for non-communicable diseases — specifically, sickle cell disease, diabetes, and mental health — focus solely on regulatory registrations and primarily in wealthy countries.
