Europe’s drug companies are better than those in US in making drugs accessible to poor countries

doi:10.1136/bmj.a397

From trainee to consultant, BMJ Group offers doctors around the world tailored information, special events, learning resources and recruitment services at every step along their career path.

... by doctors, for doctors, for patients
We are open for entries!

Online learning

BMJ Learning

High-quality CME / CPD for doctors and other healthcare professionals. BMJ Learning features hundreds of accredited, peer-reviewed learning modules in text, video, and audio formats. Find out more

Courses and Qualifications

BMJ Masterclasses

BMJ Masterclasses, led by experts, help clinicians to use the latest evidence and recent guidelines in practice and meet their CPD/CME requirements. Find out more

Exam Preparation

The leading provider of online exam preparation, helping over 167,000 healthcare professionals to pass their exams. Find out more

onExamination

Search all BMJ news articles:

From

The BMJ iPad app brings you the best of print and online, including live links to the latest news, blogs, video, and podcasts. Get the BMJ iPad app.
Countdown to London 2012: BMJ Group's Olympics portal highlights latest Olympics and sports medicine-themed research, comment and learning
Keep up to date with cardiology: Access the latest cardiovascular medicine resources from across BMJ Group.
Our online table of contents is updated at least twice each day. Read all articles published in the last 7 days.
OPEN ACCESS: All research articles are freely available online, with no word limit. Find out more about the BMJ's open access policy. Submit your paper.

Access to the full text of this article requires a subscription or payment. Please log in or subscribe below.

Andrew Jack

¹Financial Times

Drug companies in Europe do more to make drugs available and affordable to the world’s poor countries than their counterparts in the United States or Japan, concludes a new type of assessment of company policies.

The Access to Medicines Index (www.atmindex.org), a Dutch foundation established by Wim Leereveld, a former marketing consultant to the drug industry, tries to strip away the public relations rhetoric to quantify and compare meaningful corporate contributions.

Top ranked is GlaxoSmithKline, the UK based company that has been involved in researching a range of new treatments for diseases in the developing world. It also offers “tiered” pricing to sell drugs at large discounts to low income …