The 2024 Access to Medicine Index was funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, Axa Investment Managers, Stewart Investors and the Wellcome Trust.
Jayasree K. Iyer, CEO of the Foundation, said this was settled on “after engaging with various stakeholders, from the World Health Organisation to patient organisations, NGOs, governments, and investors to arrive at a multi-stakeholder consensus.”[9] Company scope The Access to Medicine Index ranks 20 of the world's largest originator (research-based) pharmaceutical companies, based on market capitalisation and the relevance of their product portfolios to diseases in the developing world.
One unlisted company, Boehringer Ingelheim, is also included since it meets the size and portfolio relevance criteria.
In 2008 and 2010, the first two editions of the Access to Medicine Index, companies engaged exclusively in the production of generic drugs were also assessed.
[16][17] Geographic scope The Access to Medicine Index focuses on low- and middle-income countries, based on World Bank and United Nations classifications measuring economic advancement, human development, and relative levels of inequality.
In addition to global media outlets reporting on the Access to Medicine Index and its findings, significant coverage includes: The results of the Access to Medicine Index are largely based on company data provided by the pharmaceutical companies themselves.