Access to healthcare in developed countries

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Difficulties with access to treatment also arise in developed countries among populations with inadequate healthcare coverage. In order to respond to these needs, sanofi-aventis has developed various partnerships with public groups and patient organizations to provide medicines free of charge or at reduced cost.

 

Programs to provide assistance to patients in the United States

In the United States, Patient Assistance Programs (PAPs) work in partnership with various organizations to allow low-income individuals and their families to obtain reduced-cost or free medications. These PAPs have enabled over 130,000 U.S. patients to receive Group medicines. In 2009, within the scope of these programs, the retail value of products provided for free represented approximately $200 million. One of the key changes in 2009 was the adjustment to income requirements to allow more patients to be eligible. Several changes were made to the application process, making it easier to apply to the program. A new website was also created to help more patients find out about these programs. The following are examples of the programs in which sanofi-aventis participates:

• PACT Plus™ is a Group program offering U.S. patients access to three medications for the treatment of skin, lung and prostate cancer as well as antiemetic drugs. Over 4,000 U.S. patients benefitted from PACT+™ in 2009.
• Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA) enables patients to use one entry point to gain access to over 475 public and private programs to obtain medicines, vaccines, etc. This program is organized by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). Over 6 million people have benefitted from these programs since 2005. www.pparx.org
• Say Hello SM is an assistance program for U.S. patients who, because they meet certain criteria, are eligible to have access to medicines marketed by sanofi-aventis (excluding oncology drugs).

Working with Samusocial in France and Russia

Sanofi-aventis has supported “Samusocial” in Paris for nine years to help provide healthcare for people living in poverty.

Each year, an in-house call for donations goes out to the employees of the Group’s French sites. Employees can thus make a contribution to helping fight social exclusion and improve healthcare for people living in poverty.

Over the years, this partnership has grown both in France and internationally. In France, support for the Epilepsy and Diabetes Observatory (l’Observatoire de l’épilepsie et du diabète) goes to improving care for these diseases among underprivileged patients. Internationally, grass-roots programs enable access to medical and psychosocial care for people living in disadvantaged neighborhoods east of Lima (Peru); for homeless persons in Bucharest (Romania); and for young people living in the streets of Moscow (Russia).

 

Reducing the time to market for medicines

Improving access to healthcare also involves close cooperation with healthcare authorities in charge of marketing authorizations in order to reduce the time required to bring new products to market, so that patients may benefit from these medicines as rapidly as possible. In Japan, where time to market is two to three times longer than in Europe, sanofi-aventis introduced a program called “Minimize Drug Lag” in 2009.