Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2008. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The New York Times - June 17, 2008
Donald G. McNeil Jr.
An unusual ranking of pharmaceutical companies is being unveiled this week. It evaluates them by how easy they make it for patients in poor countries to get drugs and vaccines.
The list, called the Access to Medicine Index, has been created for "social responsibility" funds and investors who want to know how companies whose shares they own or might buy are doing at helping people at risk of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other third world diseases. But it may also be useful to governments, medical charities and journalists, its founder said.
"Rather than looking at the pharmaceutical industry as a black box," said Wim Leereveld, a former pharmaceutical marketing entrepreneur who created the index, it will hold some companies up "as shining examples to others."
The list, at atmindex.org, will rate companies on criteria like how cheaply they sell their products in poor countries, which drugs or vaccines they ship to which countries, whether they permit sales of generic versions of their patented drugs, how much they donate and how much research they do into neglected diseases.
The index is owned by a foundation based in Haarlem, the Netherlands, that has been gathering data for several years. Pharmaceutical companies have been allowed to verify it, and independent experts have reviewed the conclusions, Mr. Leereveld said.
It is backed by Bank Sarasin, Ethos, the Central Finance Board of the Methodist Church and other institutions that collectively oversee investments of over $1 trillion, according to the index.
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