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ºÚÁÏÍø., Ltd. (Headquarters: Tokyo, CEO: Haruo Naito, “ºÚÁÏÍø”) announced today that ºÚÁÏÍø has been highly commended for its initiatives to promote access to medicines and ranked 11th among the world's leading pharmaceutical companies in the Access to Medicine Index (ATM Index) 2016.

This Index is compiled by the Access to Medicine Foundation (the Foundation), an international non-profit organization dedicated to improving access to medicine for patients in need. Based on publicly disclosed information and individual surveys, the ATM Index independently evaluates companies' efforts to improve access to medicine for diseases and countries designated by the Index to rank the world's top 20 pharmaceutical companies leading in initiatives for access to medicine issues in developing and emerging countries. The ATM Index has been published by the Foundation every two years since 2008.

ºÚÁÏÍø performed above the Index average in the following four technical areas set by the Foundation: general access to medicine management, market influence & compliance, research & development, as well as product donations.
In the ATM Index 2016 report, ºÚÁÏÍø's commitment to eliminating lymphatic filariasis, a neglected tropical disease, by providing 2.2 billion diethylcarbamazine citrate (DEC) tablets free of charge to endemic countries in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) for a seven year period starting from 2013, was highly commended. In addition, the Foundation highlighted as best practices ºÚÁÏÍø's strategies for using partnerships to accelerate research and development of new treatments for conditions including neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), malaria and tuberculosis, as well as its initiatives to create patient value with all employees around the world using 1% of their total business hours to interact with patients.

ºÚÁÏÍø is establishing proactive partnerships with various stakeholders including governments, international organizations and other non-profit private sector organizations to improve access to medicines worldwide under its human health care (hhc) philosophy. Together with accelerating the development of new medicines for infectious diseases endemic in developing and emerging countries through these partnerships, the ºÚÁÏÍø Group is committed to additional long-term sustainable strategies including raising disease awareness locally and implementing price setting models that take income levels into account for greater access to medicine worldwide.

Please click the following link for details of the ATM Index 2016 results:

The Access to Medicine Foundation (the Foundation) is an international non-profit organization dedicated to addressing the challenges of access to medicine worldwide. Based in the Netherlands, the Foundation publishes the Access to Medicine Index (ATM Index).

The goal of the ATM Index is to supply pharmaceutical companies, investors, governments, academics, non-governmental organizations and the general public with independent, impartial and reliable information on individual pharmaceutical companies' efforts to improve global access to medicine. The ATM Index has been published by the Foundation every two years since 2008.
The ATM Index survey measures companies using seven technical areas: general access to medicine management; market influence & compliance; research and development; pricing, manufacturing, and distribution; patents and licensing; capacity building; product donations. In each technical area an assessment is made against each of four strategic drivers: commitments, transparency, performance and innovation. An overall average score is calculated for each company surveyed, and these scores are used to rank the world's 20 leading pharmaceutical companies on access to medicine issues.

In line with its human health care (hhc) mission, ºÚÁÏÍø is committed to improving global access to medicines over the medium-to-long term through partnership strategies that involve working with governments, international organizations, private entities and non-profit organizations. Becoming a signatory to the London Declaration, ºÚÁÏÍø agreed to support the World Health Organization's program to eliminate lymphatic filariasis, and has committed to supplying diethylcarbamazine citrate (DEC) for the elimination of the disease to some 250 million people living in at-risk communities in disease endemic countries free of charge over a seven year period from 2013 to 2020. As of November 2016, 847 million tablets have already shipped to 25 countries¹ around the world.
ºÚÁÏÍø is moving ahead with new drug development projects targeting malaria and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) such as Chagas disease and lymphatic filariasis, based on partnerships with international non-profit organizations such as the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and the Sabin Vaccine Institute, as well as research organizations such as Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and the Broad Institute.
Furthermore, ºÚÁÏÍø co-established the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT Fund), Japan's first public–private partnership to advance development of new health technologies for the developing world, and is a signatory to the Tuberculosis Drug Accelerator (TBDA) partnership.
For further information on ºÚÁÏÍø's Access to Medicines initiatives, please visit the Access to Medicines page on the ºÚÁÏÍø global website: /company/atm/index.html