As one of the most profitable manufacture in the earth , with a market worth of an estimated $ 300 billion per year , much suspicion surrounds the pharmaceutical industriousness as it oft seems that only the wealthiest can afford to get the full healthcare . In footfall the non - profitAccess to Medicine Foundation , which assesses what pharmaceutic companies are doing to speak this .
Their in vogue reporthas found that GlaxoSmithKlein ( GSK ) tops the rankings for the fifth time in a quarrel , come after by Johnson & Johnson , Novartis , and Merck KGaA. They have found that all 20 companies have made improvement in the area of accessibility of drug to more hoi polloi , but they are doing less well on affordable pricing and the fight against corruption .
The foundationtrackeda sum of 850 drug used to address 51 of the defective diseases in low- and middle - income countries , with another 420 drug being germinate . It then ranked the companies on a image of parameters , including inquiry and development , manufacture and distribution , patent of invention and licensing , and product donation . This year ’s study has highlight that while accessibility may be improving , there is still a long way to go with pricing , as the bulk of drug do not have effective pricing strategies in the countries with the most want .
“ It ’s obvious that the manufacture can do much more in the expanse of affordability , ” Jayasree Iyer , executive director of Access to Medicine , told reporter . “ There ’s still a immense gap of more products that involve to be there . ”
While GSK is leading the pack , Roche and Astellas are trailing at the bottom . Roche was noted for a deficiency of transparence , refusing to supply Access to Medicine with all the info necessary to make a proper assessment , meaning that the foundation had to make their judgement base on the late year ’s data .
There are still a shocking2 billion peoplein the world who do not have access to medicine . The foundation , therefore , essay to keep tabs on what precisely these multibillion dollar companies are doing to try to turn out this soma . Based in the Netherlands , and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ( as well as the UK and Dutch governments ) , the foundation began in 2008 and is completely independent to the pharmaceutic industry .
