A handful of the largest purveyors of generic medicines have made only halting progress to ensure their drugs are accessible for patients in low- and middle-income countries, a new analysis found.
For instance, just one of 50 different treatments marketed by these companies — Teva Pharmaceuticals, Sun Pharmaceutical, Cipla, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, and Viatris — had a pricing strategy in place that considered a patient’s ability to pay.
And while the analysis found there are plans to expand access to 41 of those drugs, the strategies are “very limited in scope” and, in particular, “do not address affordability considerations for the poorest patients, including those who are uninsured and must pay out-of-pocket for medicine,” according to the nonprofit Access to Medicine Foundation, which issued the report.