HOW do you turn a growing desire among western investors to put their funds behind ethical companies into improved access to medication for poor people?
The Access to Medicine Foundation, based in Haarlem, the Netherlands, has to assess how ethically pharmaceutical companies perform towards developing countries. It will make its ranking available online from 16 June and hopes investors will use it to decide which companies to invest in, while encouraging big pharma to make medicines available to poor people.
鈥淚nvestors see ethical behaviour by companies as a sign of good long-term management,鈥� says Wim Leereveld, who chairs the foundation. He says that 12 fund managers 鈥� together responsible for investing assets worth $1.2 trillion 鈥� have welcomed the assessment.
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The ranking looks at criteria such as whether companies have a strategy to help people in poor countries get medicines; have used global trade rules to hinder countries claiming rights to generic medicines; transfer technology to poor countries; price drugs fairly; donate drugs; and fund research into drugs for poor countries.
