The Access to Medicine Foundation’s mission is to stimulate and guide pharmaceutical and vaccine companies to do more for the people living in low- and middle-income countries without access to medicine or vaccines. We talk to experts about the actions pharmaceutical and vaccine companies can and should be taking in this regard. We then analyse what specific companies are doing, and use our findings to drive change. The Foundation is an independent, non-profit organisation.

The Foundation is working toward five strategic shifts in how pharmaceutical companies think and act regarding access to medicine. We use our three-part model for change: (1) we follow a consensus-building process to determine how companies can improve access to medicine; (2) we analyse how companies are performing in this regard; and (3) we engage with experts from across the industry and access-to-medicine space, for example, to improve companies’ long-term thinking on access and to increase the application of best practices.

Expertise

The team collects and analyses data from the world’s biggest pharma and vaccine companies. Ours is the most comprehensive, long-running survey of company behaviour regarding access to medicine. To translate our findings into action, we engage with the companies we measure and with organisations from the private sector, donors, NGOs, governments and investors. Our findings and reports are used by companies’ access teams to drive change internally, as well as by specialists from the global health and investor communities to inform strategy and policy, discussions and wider debates.

Governance and financials

The Access to Medicine Foundation is an independent, non-profit organisation. We are funded exclusively by sources such as foundations, governments and development organisations. We do not receive funding from pharmaceutical companies or industry bodies. Strategic and financial oversight is provided by the Supervisory Board. Good governance is ensured by the Foundation’s Executive Board and management team, and codified in various charters and codes of ethics.

The Access to Medicine Foundation is funded by the UK Government, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Its Access to Vaccines Index is funded by the Dutch Postcode Lottery. The Access to Medicine Foundation has registered charity status in the Netherlands (known as ANBI-status).