Access to healthcare
We want to help secure a future where all people have access to affordable, sustainable healthcare. This is critical for the prevention and early diagnosis of disease as well as to deliver life-changing treatments – for healthy people and a healthy society.
Our approach to Access to healthcare
We are committed to supporting society through some of its toughest challenges, working in collaboration with governments, academia, international organisations, regulators, and other stakeholders. Our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on low and middle-income countries, is one example of our equitable access strategy in action.
We provide healthcare solutions across the patient care pathway - from prevention, raising awareness, diagnosis and treatment, to post-treatment support.
Disease prevention and treatment
Innovating to deliver life-changing medicines and future-proof global health systems.
Preventing and treating disease is critical to supporting people on their path to better health. We aim to prevent illness in the first place through advocacy and research and, for those who have been diagnosed with a condition, we work to ensure access to effective treatment.
Health systems strengthening
Partnering with others to improve health systems and resilience and increase access to treatment, now and in the future
Everyone should be able to access the health services they need. Equitable access is the foundation of robust and resilient healthcare systems. We are investing in ground-breaking global collaborations, local partnerships, company initiatives and fast-tracked innovation to give access to, and improve the quality of, healthcare for more people around the world.
Health equity
Transforming the future of healthcare to ensure everyone has equitable access to treatment.
People’s chances of having good health should not be determined by where they live or were born. Unfortunately, they often are. Through a series of partnerships and programmes around the world we are working to remove barriers to health and give everyone the chance to be as healthy as possible – from improving access to health education to living in a healthy environment – particularly in low and middle-income countries. We have committed to health equity in the delivery of healthcare, in our clinical trials and beyond.
Affordability
We are constantly looking at ways to make our life-changing medicines widely available and accessible to people around the world.
We want all patients who need medicine to be able to access it without suffering financial hardship. There is no single solution – making progress here will require our industry, policymakers, and payers to address the barriers to access and affordability together.
Flagship partnerships
Young Health Programme
Since 2010, our Young Health Programme has worked to help young people aged 10-24 take proactive control of their health, especially to combat long-term conditions like cancer, diabetes, respiratory and heart disease, and ill mental health – often called non-communicable diseases. Through research, advocacy, and our disease prevention schemes, we are helping young people make better health choices for brighter life chances.
Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience
Launched in 2020 by AstraZeneca, the London School of Economics and the World Economic Forum, the Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience (PHSSR) was motivated by a shared commitment to improving population health, through and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.Following a successful pilot phase in 2021 which has delivered recommendations summarised here to make health systems more resilient and sustainable, PHSSR has expanded into 13 new countries plus a regional hub in the Central, Eastern Europe and Baltics Area (CEEBA).
Healthy Heart Africa
Our Healthy Heart Africa programme is committed to tackling hypertension and the increasing burden of cardiovascular disease across Africa. We are committed to reaching 10 million people with elevated blood pressure across Africa by 2025, working with local and global partners to train providers, increase education and awareness, and facilitate access to low-cost anti-hypertensives where applicable.
Our ambition by 2025:
Reach 50 million
people (cumulatively) through our Healthy Heart Africa, Healthy Lung and Young Health Programme*
Train 170,000
healthcare workers (cumulatively) to strengthen health systems throughout the world through our Healthy Heart Africa, Healthy Lung and Young Health Programme*
Commit $35 million
from 2020 to expand our Young Health Programme across the globe*
Our achievements
132,000
healthcare workers trained since 2010*
+25 million
people reached through Access to Healthcare programmes including Healthy Heart Africa, Young Health Programme and Healthy Lung*
+10 million
people reached through our patient assistance programmes which help patients in financial difficulty gain access to our medications*
*as of December 2020, source: Sustainability Report
Veeva ID: Z4-39263
Date of preparation: December 2021