MenAfriVac, meningitis vaccine administered to 100 millionth person

WHO have announced meningitis vaccine will reach the 100 millionth person this week in a region of Africa that has been plagued by deadly epidemics for more than a century. The milestone will take place in northern Nigeria, part of Africa’s ‘meningitis belt’, where the country is conducting its second seasonal immunization campaign against the disease.

The historic achievement comes two years after the MenAfriVac® vaccine was first launched in Burkina Faso. Since then, nine other countries have held vaccination campaigns to protect people from ages 1 to 29 against meningitis A. Nigeria will vaccinate 16 million people over the next two weeks and Cameroon and Chad are also conducting immunization campaigns this week targeting 5.5 million and 2.3 million people respectively. By the end of this year, the vaccine will have reached more than 112 million people, providing widespread and long-awaited protection.

Source: WHO

Access to Medicine Index 2012

The Access to Medicine Index is an independent initiative that ranks the world’s 20 largest companies according to their efforts to improve access to medicine in developing countries, highlighting policy and practice that either facilitate or hinder access. It is published every two years by the Access to Medicine Foundation, which aims to encourage pharmaceutical companies to make their products more available, affordable and accessible for the millions of people worldwide who do not have reliable access to medicine

The Index uses a framework that evaluates company activities in seven areas of activity considered to be
key to enhancing access to medicine in developing countries. It analyses 101 indicators across these
areas, and within each, the indicators are distributed across four types of action to assess the level
of commitment the company demonstrates, how transparent it is about what it is doing, what specific
activities it is engaged in and how innovative its approach is.


The Index covers 20 companies, 103 countries, and a broad range of products such as drugs, vaccines,
diagnostic tests and other health-related technologies necessary for preventing, diagnosing and treating
disease. A total of 33 diseases are covered, and the disease scope this year includes maternal conditions
and neonatal infections.

Following is the ratings for the year 2012

Access to Medicine Index 2012

GlaxoSmithKline remains at the top of the Index, with a marginal improvement in performance since 2010, and this year, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi follow closely in 2nd and 3rd positions. The top two companies have the most consistent approach to improving access to medicine, in terms of Index measurements – GlaxoSmithKline leads in four out of the seven key areas and is in the top three in others, and Johnson & Johnson is among the top five performers across all categories. Sanofi leads in public policy, and is second in three other areas; only its ninth position in patents and licencing and eighth position in pricing, manufacturing and distribution puts its overall score at third.

Source: Access to Medicine Index 2012