By Funmilola Gboteku

The Access to Medicine Foundation says pharmaceutical firms face gaps in making new medicines accessible, as its 2026 report finds innovation outpacing treatment access in low- and middle-income countries.

The foundation made this known in its 2026 Index, released during a webinar marking 20 years of tracking pharmaceutical companies’ action on global health equity.

The report revealed that access plans now cover 69 per cent of pharmaceutical companies’ late-stage pipeline candidates, representing more than three times the proportion recorded in 2018.

The foundation, however, explained that progress remained uneven, particularly for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), where 43 per cent of access plans focused solely on product registration.

The Index highlighted that regulatory approval alone was insufficient to guarantee patients’ access, stressing the need for strategies addressing affordability, availability and reliable medicine supply.

It urged pharmaceutical companies to make access planning systematic across their product pipelines and work with local partners to identify barriers before medicines reached the market.

On cancer treatment, the report found that oncology products accounted for approximately half of all pharmaceutical clinical candidates, making cancer the dominant area of research and development.

The report said although access plans covered 65 per cent of oncology pipeline candidates, strategies existed for 74 per cent of assessed cancer products in lower-middle-income countries.

“In low-income countries, however, access strategies covered only 19 per cent of assessed cancer products, exposing significant geographical inequalities in access to emerging treatments,” the report said.

The foundation recommended stronger partnerships with cancer programmes and treatment centres in developing countries to address barriers involving screening, diagnosis, affordability and healthcare capacity.

On inclusive business models, the report identified six pharmaceutical companies operating multi-country initiatives designed to reach underserved populations, compared with five companies in 2024.

It said that the six companies’ models collectively span all 113 low- and middle-income countries covered by the Index, although limited product-level reporting makes their actual impact difficult to establish.

The report also identified 25 diabetes research and development projects across six pharmaceutical companies, with innovation heavily concentrated on glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) medicines.

In spite of growing research into newer diabetes treatments, the foundation identified insulin accessibility as a major challenge, particularly for patients in lower-income countries.

It urged global health stakeholders to prioritise affordable and reliable insulin supply while ensuring newer treatments and technologies did not widen existing health inequalities.

Commenting on the findings, Ms Jayasree Iyer, Chief Executive Officer of the Access to Medicine Foundation, said two decades of industry assessment had strengthened efforts to address persistent access barriers.

“Twenty years of progress have put us in a stronger position than ever to tackle persistent gaps in access.

“The Index has shown what works, companies have more tools at their disposal and access is increasingly being considered earlier,” she said.

Iyer explained that the opportunity now was to build on existing progress and extend effective access strategies to more patients, particularly in underserved communities.

Also, Claudia Martínez, Director of Research, Access to Medicine Foundation, said the industry had recorded important developments, including sustainable business models, product approvals, pipeline innovations and new licensing agreements.

“The 2026 Index shows some important shifts in how companies are approaching access. But these efforts are still concentrated among too few companies, products and diseases,” she said.

Martínez stressed that pharmaceutical companies needed to expand successful approaches across the industry to ensure more patients benefited from improvements in medicine development and delivery.

Meanwhile, in the index, Novartis emerged as the leading pharmaceutical company for the second time, followed by GSK, with both retaining their positions across all three technical areas assessed.

AstraZeneca ranked third, Sanofi fourth, Bayer fifth, Boehringer Ingelheim and Roche sixth, while Pfizer occupied eighth position in the assessment.

The foundation explained that the 2026 assessment placed greater emphasis on implementation and measurable outcomes, using fewer indicators to distinguish between companies’ commitments and actual performance.

The Index covered the period from June 1, 2024, to May 31, 2026, and assessed companies across Governance of Access, Research and Development, and Product Delivery. (NAN)(NAN)

Edited by Folasade Adeniran