RESPONSE TO ACCESS TO MEDICINE INDEX

Monday, 14 November 2016 - 3:14pm

Save the Children’s Chief Executive, Kevin Watkins, comments below.

“We congratulate our partner GSK, on being ranked top of the 2016 Access to Medicine Index. We recognise that GSK has consistently done more than other pharmaceutical companies to expand access to its products to those living in low and middle-income countries. Through our five-year partnership, which aims to help save the lives of one million children, we’ve been working with GSK to ensure that its policies promote access to medicines for every last child. This includes the recent decision to allow humanitarian organisations to access the lowest prices for its pneumonia vaccine. We’re working with GSK on promoting the concept of Universal Health Coverage, and leveraging our expertise to help create child-friendly medicines at not-for-profit prices, such as our work on Chlorhexidine.

The Access to Medicines Index is a great tool for assessing the efforts made by pharmaceutical companies to develop business models that combine innovation with strategies for more equitable access. It is unacceptable that so many young lives are still blighted and put at risk because vital medicines are inaccessible or unaffordable. Building on GSK’s example, governments, private companies and CSOs need to redouble their efforts to ensure all medicines necessary for the continuum of care for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health are available to those that need them."