Pharmaceutical Industry-led Partnerships Focused on Addressing the Global Burden of Non-communicable Diseases: A Review of Access Accelerated

Global health partnerships have been growing in popularity, with many of these partnerships led by biopharmaceutical companies focusing on non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Along the way, these partnerships have faced both internal and external challenges, from lack of clarity of partner’s roles and responsibilities to a lack of harmonization. 

A journal article in Public Health  by Veronika J. Wirtz and co-authors seek to fill an information gap by describing the role of partners and the types of partnerships in NCD programs reported in the Access Observatory as part of the Access Accelerated Initiative. The authors’ analysis sheds light on the roles and responsibilities of companies and their partners, ultimately developing a new set of partnership typologies that can be used to analyze current and future partnerships.

The authors find that pharmaceutical companies play a leading role in funding Access Accelerated programs with local governmental or non-governmental organizations mainly involved in program implementation. Detailed and transparent reporting of the role of local stakeholders in agenda setting, planning and coordination of programs is needed to ensure public trust and accountability of programs led by pharmaceutical companies.