Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany Ranks Fourth in 2018 Access to Medicine Index

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, today announced that it ranks fourth in the 2018 Access to Medicine Index, maintaining its ranking among the top five since the last Index in 2016.

20 Nov 2018 | Darmstadt, Germany
  • Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany maintains ranking since last Index published by the Access to Medicine Foundation in 2016
  • The company has been recognized for its innovative practices such as establishing its Global Health Institute 

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany a leading science and technology company, today announced that it ranks fourth in the 2018 Access to Medicine Index, maintaining its ranking among the top five since the last Index in 2016. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany’s ranking by the Access to Medicine Foundation is a recognition of the company's strong access-to-medicine strategy as well as its efforts across the whole value chain to address the needs of unserved and underserved populations.

“At Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany we believe in science as a force for good. We are proud to rank in the top five of the 2018 ATM Index. This recognizes our longstanding commitment to improve access to health for people in low- and middle-income countries”, said Stefan Oschmann, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. “Improving the health of underserved populations is a strategic priority of our corporate responsibility and global health activities. We seek to push the boundaries of possibility to create opportunities for everyone”, Oschmann added.

Every two years, the Access to Medicine Foundation, through its Index, benchmarks the top 20 pharmaceutical companies on activities and initiatives that experts consider most relevant for access to medicine, ranging from donations, and patents to capacity-building.

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany has been particularly recognized by the Access to Medicine Foundation for leading practices such as:

  • Establishing its Global Health Institute to accelerate R&D, incorporate access provisions and build capacity for projects and initiatives targeting schistosomiasis, malaria and bacterial infections
  • Joining the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative’s NTD Drug Discovery Booster to accelerate the development of early-stage projects for Chagas disease and leishmaniasis as part of the company’s commitment to Open Innovation
  • Establishing the its Capacity Advancement Program to improve access to better diabetes, cancer, hypertension and fertility therapies in underserved regions. By educating and training medical students and healthcare providers from the start, the aim is to strengthen the local capacities and enhance clinical management processes
  • Joining “Access Accelerated”, a global initiative with multiple programs including the the company’s Capacity Advancement Program and committing to measure impact and share results publicly via the Access Observatory
  • Disclosing publicly the patent statuses for small molecules in scope via the Pat-INFORMED platform with 20 leading research-based pharmaceutical companies and in collaboration with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany’s Access to Health approach reflects the company’s shared value commitment. For Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany creating shared value not only means developing business models that increase the value and competitiveness of the company. It also means developing solutions that solve unmet health needs and bring value to underserved populations. The company recognizes that partnership, collaboration and continuous dialogue with a diverse array of public and private stakeholders are key to ensuring that the delivery of sustainable access solutions is serving people’s needs.

The 2018 Access to Medicine Index ranking and Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany’s report card can be accessed here: www.accesstomedicineindex.org

Downloads

For more information, please contact Giulia Bachmann

About the Access to Medicine Foundation

The Access to Medicine Foundation is an independent non-profit organisation based in the Netherlands. Their mission is to stimulate and guide pharmaceutical companies to do more for the people living in low- and middle-income countries without access to medicine. They are analysing pharma companies’ actions and policies regarding access to medicine and benchmark companies against each other, identifying best practices and progress gaps. The Foundation publishes the Access to Medicine Index every two years since 2008, the first Index of its kind to rank top 20 research-based pharmaceutical companies with respect to their efforts to improve global access to medicine.

Please find more information here:  https://accesstomedicinefoundation.org/  

About the Access to Medicine Index

2 billion people in the world have no access to medicine. The Index gives insight into what the pharmaceutical industry is doing to improve this situation.

The Access to Medicine Index independently ranks pharmaceutical companies’ efforts to improve access to medicine in developing countries. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK and Dutch governments, the Index has been published every two years since 2008. It is a product of a two-year process known as the ‘Index cycle’. During year one of the cycle, the Foundation focuses on reviewing the previous Index and consulting expert stakeholders to prepare the methodology for the next Access to Medicine Index. Year two is spent collecting, verifying and analysing data from pharmaceutical companies. Finally, the results are published in a new Access to Medicine Index, and the cycle begins again.

All Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, press releases are distributed by e-mail at the same time they become available on the EMD Group Website. In case you are a resident of the USA or Canada please go to www.emdgroup.com/subscribe to register for your online subscription of this service as our geo-targeting requires new links in the email. You may later change your selection or discontinue this service.

About Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, the vibrant science and technology company, operates across healthcare, life science and performance materials. Around 53,000 employees work to make a positive difference to millions of people’s lives every day by creating more joyful and sustainable ways to live. From advancing gene editing technologies and discovering unique ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enabling the intelligence of devices – the company is everywhere. In 2017, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, generated sales of € 15.3 billion in 66 countries.

The company holds the global rights to the name and trademark “Merck” internationally. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the business sectors of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany operate as EMD Serono in healthcare, MilliporeSigma in life science, and EMD Performance Materials. Since its founding 1668, scientific exploration and responsible entrepreneurship have been key to the company’s technological and scientific advances. To this day, the founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed company. For more information about Merck, KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, visit www.emdgroup.com.

Related News

  1. Press Releases

    First cyber-physical trust platform launched to tackle issues of product safety ...

    We launched M-Trust™, a secure cyber-physical trust platform, addressing growing issues of product safety, traceability and counterfeiting.

    2025/01/06