Press release
Access Accelerated and partners unveil findings from six-year report
Access Accelerated, a pioneering collective of leading biopharmaceutical and life science companies dedicated to confronting the growing global noncommunicable disease (NCD) crisis, announced the release of a six-year report: Key Lessons in Advancing Access to NCD Care: Collaboration, Connectivity, Community.
This milestone report, which was officially launched at a World Health Assembly (WHA) side event on May 23, highlights the initiative’s outcomes, impact, and collective learnings between 2017 and 2022 and serves as a retrospective, a showcase for the initiative’s success stories and challenges, and a much-needed vision for the future.
Michael Fredrich, Lead Access to Medicine Non-Communicable Diseases at Bayer Pharmaceuticals and Chair of the Access Accelerated Board, commented: “With the 2030 deadline for the UN Sustainable Development Goals approaching fast, which include Universal Health Coverage, it’s more important than ever that we make the most out of our resources and approach this fight strategically. This report gives us the opportunity to critically evaluate our past and use key learnings for the future. It is essential that we share insights and learn from our collective efforts. Much work lies ahead, but this report serves as a valuable foundation for effectively addressing NCDs.”
This initiative’s impact has already been felt widely. Access Accelerated and its strategic partners – the City Cancer Challenge Foundation, NCD Alliance, PATH, the World Bank and the World Heart Federation – have helped improve access to NCD screening, diagnosis, and treatment around the world, reaching over 700 million people through 54 partner projects in 37 countries and catalyzing $US1.6 billion in investment in 2022 alone. By the end of phase 2 (2020-2022), this number totalled $US3.7 billion. In the same period, Access Accelerated partner projects contributed to policy change in 35 countries and 13 projects were scaled to national level, moving away from pilot phase to locally-embedded projects. Those successes are the result of ground-breaking collaborative approaches.
Six years since its founding, the initiative has accumulated a wealth of hard-won knowledge and experience. The report highlights those learnings, including the crucial role of open, transparent communication in measuring intangible impact of partnerships, the ways flexible long-term funding can open the way for locally-embedded solutions, and why community- and patient-centric approaches are essential to sustainability. By capturing impacts beyond hard numbers, the report demonstrates the importance of local engagement, trust, and social capital in improving NCD outcomes over time.
According to Dr. Juan Pablo Uribe, World Bank’s Global Director for Health, Nutrition & Population and Director of the Global Financing Facility, the report demonstrates the importance of rigorous monitoring and reporting: “Learning from our successes and challenges is absolutely necessary if we are going to shape more efficient and effective initiatives that can respond to the growing NCD burden on countries around the world. That’s why we’re excited to have the insights offered by this report to inform future initiatives and are grateful to the partnership with Access Accelerated which have led to meaningful action in creating sustainable change.”
The launch event which featured Dr. Alarcos Cieza from the World Health Organization, Dr. Lilian Mbau from the Kenya Cardiac Society and Dr. Monica Vledder from the World Bank explored how the collective lessons gained while working towards the SDGs can shape future actions and discuss ways they can be leveraged during the next half of the implementation phase of Agenda 2030.
For a more in-depth exploration of the report’s findings, including detailed analyses, case studies, stories, and interviews, visit www.accessaccelerated.org/keylessons.