At AstraZeneca we believe that all people should have affordable health insurance and prescription drug coverage.
It is an ambitious but needed goal, and there is a lot of work to do, but we are dedicated as a company to collaborate and partner with others to make this goal a reality.
Furthermore, when treatments don’t reach a population—no matter how effective our drugs may be—we haven’t made a mark when it comes to improving patient health. We recognize that our responsibility goes beyond making meaningful medicines to making them available to those in need. For the last thirty years, AstraZeneca has offered patient assistance programs side-by-side with our medicines to uninsured individual and families earning up to three times of the federal poverty level. This year we provided more than $600 million in AstraZeneca medications to those in need.
In keeping with our culture of transparency, we began to publish biannual reports of our contributions to nonprofit organizations, as we believe it is important to be open about what we are doing to make a meaningful difference to patient health. This year, AstraZeneca donated $41.4 million in contributions to nonprofit organizations across the US.
2008 Community Highlights:
- Continued to increase public awareness of patient assistance programs by including affordability reference in direct-to-consumer advertising
- Helped 440,000 people fill 2.7 million prescriptions
- Implemented tools and systems to allow public greater access and transparency around our charitable contributions
- Donated more than $3 billion in medicine for people without prescription drug insurance over the last six years
- Supported 15 new American Cancer Society Patient Navigator sites
Looking ahead: Our goals for 2009 and beyond…
- Maintain leadership and deliver strategic alliances and support of community health stakeholder organizations to advocate for improved patient health
- Continue to help make our medicines available to those in need
- Accelerate the opening of five new American Cancer Society Patient Navigator sites in the next five years
- Open the Philadelphia AstraZeneca Hope Lodge to continue to provide patients and their families free temporary housing when undergoing treatment at cancer center located a distance from their homes
