Equitable access

We are embedding practices into our product portfolio to drive equitable access to healthcare — including digital health, clinical trial diversity, patient centricity, investment in rare diseases, open innovation and IP-sharing arrangements.

Our approach

AstraZeneca is committed to improving equitable access to healthcare for patients globally, including to our innovative product portfolio. Our approach includes integrating programmes into local systems and delivering affordable medicines to patients. We seek to drive positive global health outcomes by:

• Addressing unmet medical needs and barriers to access 
• Increasing the speed and breadth of patient access 
• Driving excellence in product life cycle management 
• Understanding the long-term impacts of scientific advances 

We are playing our part to address health inequities and eliminate discrimination from the delivery of healthcare. As a company at the forefront of scientific and medical innovation, we are also harnessing the latest digital technologies to support improved access. This includes using the power of data and analytics for early diagnosis, and expanding access to the latest medical research and training for healthcare professionals. 

We are committed to designing clinical programmes with equity at the forefront – from idea inception to patient care. Our approach is patient-centric, data-driven and science-led. We are improving the diversity of clinical trial participants with strong data foundations, tools and standards to align and track progress, and external partnerships. We work with industry groups, regulatory agencies and local community groups to shape clinical trial diversity policies of the future while delivering for patients today.

We believe people with rare diseases deserve the same attention and investment to find and access therapies as anyone else. As we expand the geographies where our rare disease medicines are available, we continue to build relationships with patient communities early in our development programmes to better understand their needs.

Equitable access is closely related to other areas of our sustainability strategy, such as Affordability and pricing, Health system resilience, Ethical business culture, including Inclusion and diversity, and Research and Development Digital health.

Discover more about equitable access

We believe everyone should have access to healthcare, no matter who they are or where they live. This is critical across the patient care pathway – from prevention, early detection and diagnosis to the effective treatment of disease.