HIV TREATMENT
2020
Action 27. Mobilize their networks and work with communities to help build treatment literacy, generate demand, and expand access to ARVs among children.
Action 34. Increase efforts to share information on the roll-out of new paediatric formulations, including lessons learned.
Paediatric HIV & TB : Rome Action Plan
33. Include paediatric R&D and product deployment research and analysis in the next Access to Medicine Index, highlighting critical paediatric treatment R&D issues and actions pharmaceutical companies are taking to address those, by January 2021.
34. Explore additional methods of including paediatric access issues in the following editions of the Access to Medicine Index and to do so as part of the next Access to Medicine Index Methodology review process, by December 2021.
Commitment 33:
June 2022
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While the Access to Medicine Foundation has fully achieved its commitment to the Rome Paediatric HIV/TB Action Plan made in the fall of 2020, including a special standalone report on paediatric access issues, the Foundation continues to incorporate the unique needs of paediatric populations in its work and to promote change-making within the pharmaceutical industry aimed at improving access to medicine for infants, children and youth. The next Access to Medicine Index, out in November 2022, will further highlight access issues for paediatric populations and drive company progress on key opportunities.
March 2022
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The ATM Foundation has exceeded the expectations of its first commitment to the Rome Paediatric HIV/TB Action Plan made in fall 2020. Instead of simply including an analysis of paediatric findings within the Access to Medicine Index as originally committed, given the richness of the data obtained and the importance of the topic, the Foundation felt it was necessary to publish a detailed standalone report to capture the full breadth of the analysis. Closing gaps in access to medicine for children: how R&D and delivery efforts can be ramped up, looked at the current actions of the pharmaceutical companies assessed in the 2021 Access to Medicine Index to develop and deploy treatments aimed specifically at children under 12. Notably, this report provided (1) a paediatric pipeline breakdown, showing which diseases benefit most from pharma R&D efforts, (2) a comparison of companies' late-stage paediatric pipelines, including coverage by access plans, (3) examples of potentially game-changing products that have now gained market approval, and (4) tangible actions that pharmaceutical companies, product development partners, governments and the global health community can take to help ramp up R&D and delivery efforts. The 2021 Access to Medicine Index also included a summary of these findings published in January 2021 to draw attention to the issue within the Index.
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The opportunities presented in the findings provided an update to the ATM Foundation’s 2020 series on the urgent need for new child-friendly treatments for HIV, malaria and TB and set out reforms for shaping policy and scaling up progress across paediatric medicine. The ATM Foundation encouraged companies, product development partners, governments and other stakeholders to invest in these opportunities to help close the gap from pipeline to patient and the global inequalities in children’s healthcare. The report's findings were featured in NRC, the Hindu Busines line, CIDRAP and SciDevNet.
October 2021
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The Access to Medicine Foundation included paediatric R&D and product deployment research and analysis into the 2021 Access to Medicine Index, launched in January. Based on these findings, the Access to Medicine Foundation additionally launched a standalone report, Closing gaps in access to medicine for children: how R&D and delivery efforts can be ramped up. With significant gaps in paediatric treatment options, the analysis takes a deep dive into the actions of 20 of the world’s largest pharma companies to develop and deliver much-needed medicines for children and offers recommendations for urgent action.
Commitment 34:
June 2022
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In addition to revising the methodology for the Access to Medicine Index, the Foundation is also expanding its overall scope of work via its new 5-year strategic direction to cover a new set of sectors. These sectors include generic companies, such as those partnering on paediatric R&D and delivery, LMIC-based vaccine manufacturers supplying the large majority of paediatric vaccines globally, diagnostic companies, which are currently the weakest link in the care cascade, and medical gas companies supplying medical oxygen for paediatric patients with birth complications and diseases such as pneumonia, a leading cause of death in children living in LMICs. With the new strategy, the Foundation aims to apply its successful theory of change to these additional sectors and guide and incentivise the companies in scope to improve access to their products for paediatric populations.
March 2022
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The ATM Foundation made a concerted and focused effort to engage paediatric experts in the consultation process for the ''Big Three'' paper series on paediatric HIV, TB and malaria access issues. These consultations offered valuable insight into some of the recurring access issues that paediatric populations face, and particularly HIV, TB and malaria patients. Using this important feedback and insight as a starting place, the ATM Foundation continued to engage with experts on the publication on the follow-up standalone paediatric study, Closing gaps in access to medicine for children, for the 2022 Access to Medicine Index, out later this year. Taking this and for the feedback into consideration, the Access to Medicine Index will continue to track whether products in a company's portfolio have paediatric indications and/or formulations. For projects in company pipelines, clinical trials for paediatric formulations and/or indications are designated R&D priority projects (which has implications for scoring and analysis as per the Index methodology). For paediatric R&D projects from phase II onwards, we continue to ask companies to submit their market access plans for countries within the scope of the Index. For the next Access to Medicine Index, out at the end of 2022, there has also been a shift in weighting away from the Governance and Access indicators to R&D (including paediatric R&D projects). Further, osteosarcoma, a common paediatric cancer, is newly in scope. We therefore now include projects/products to treat osteosarcoma in pipeline/portfolio. The Foundation's will cover additional essential sectors relevant to the unique needs of paediatric populations including, generic medicine manufacturers, LMIC-based vaccine manufacturers, diagnostic companies and medical gas companies delivering medical oxygen to guide and incentivise further action from additional players.
October 2021
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On track for completion: The Access to Medicine Foundation is currently in the process of reviewing its methodology and consulting with stakeholders to incorporate additional analysis on paediatric access issues and advance usage and influence of research insights. These efforts will complement and aid other stakeholders in bringing more companies to the table. The next Methodology will be published later this year.