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. 2015 Dec 11;10(12):e0141374.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0141374. eCollection 2015.

The Global Health Impact Index: Promoting Global Health

Nicole Hassoun  1
Affiliations

The Global Health Impact Index: Promoting Global Health

Nicole Hassoun. PLoS One. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Millions of people cannot access essential medicines they need for deadly diseases like malaria, tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDS. There is good information on the need for drugs for these diseases but until now, no global estimate of the impact drugs are having on this burden. This paper presents a model measuring companies' key malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS drugs' consequences for global health (global-health-impact.org). It aggregates drugs' impacts in several ways-by disease, country and originator-company. The methodology can be extended across diseases as well as drugs to provide a more extensive picture of the impact companies' drugs are having on the global burden of disease. The study suggests that key malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS drugs are, together, ameliorating about 37% of the global burden of these diseases and Sanofi, Novartis, and Pfizer's drugs are having the largest effect on this burden. Moreover, drug impacts vary widely across countries. This index provides important information for policy makers, pharmaceutical companies, countries, and other stake-holders that can help increase access to essential medicines.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Impact scores of individual drugs by rank.
A graph of the comparative impact of the top 10 drugs ranked from 1 (highest impact) to 10 (lowest impact). Blue bars represent malaria drugs, yellow bars represent TB drugs, and red bars represent HIV drugs.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Total impact scores for drugs aggregated by disease.
What proportion of aggregate drug impacts is attributable to Malaria, TB, and HIV.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Estimated Disability Adjusted Life Years averted in each country.
A graph showing how many DALYs are averted globally, divided by country.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Impact scores of individual drugs by rank for Nigeria.
A graph of the comparative impact of 15 drugs ranked from 1 (highest impact) to 15 (lowest impact) for the treatment of Malaria in Nigeria. Blue bars represent malaria drugs, yellow bars represent TB drugs, and red bars represent HIV drugs.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Aggregated drug impact scores for each company.
The proportion of total impact attributable to companies based upon the drugs they have originated.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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