LONDON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - The world's top drugmakers haveimproved access to medicines in developing countries but stillneed to do more to make a wider range of products affordable,according to a report on Monday.
The Access to Medicine Index, which ranks the 20 leadingpharmaceutical companies every two years, found GlaxoSmithKline led the pack for the fifth time, followed by Johnson &Johnson, Novartis and Merck KGaA.
The independently compiled index, first launched in 2008, isnow widely tracked by the industry and has helped focusexecutives' attention on the issue of getting life-savingtreatments to people in poor countries.
Jayasree Iyer, executive director of the Amsterdam-basedAccess to Medicine Foundation, said drugmakers were becomingmore sophisticated in addressing the issue but more needed to bedone on pricing.
While the foundation tracks a total 850 drugs for the 51most burdensome diseases in low- and middle-income countries,its report found that only 44 of these had effective pricingstrategies in the highest-priority countries.
"It's obvious that the industry can do much more in the areaof affordability," Iyer told reporters. "There's still a hugegap of more products that need to be there."
AstraZeneca and Takeda Pharmaceutical bothclimbed significantly within the index, after expanding theirdrug access programmes, while Novo Nordisk, Roche and Gilead all slipped down the ranking. (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Mark Potter)
Glaxosmithkline (GSK)
