Viatris 2022 Sustainability Report: Responding to Continued COVID-19 Pandemic Needs
Our work to respond to emergent needs from the COVID-19 pandemic offers important examples of our commitment to partnership in pursuit of equitable access.
In India, where Viatris has a substantial manufacturing and employee footprint, we created a 360-degree partnership ecosystem with central government, state governments, public and private hospitals, academic and research institutions, NGOs and other pharmaceutical companies to ensure uninterrupted access to high-quality COVID-19 treatments. We worked closely with
the government of India, particularly the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and Department of Pharmaceuticals, and extended our full support to the government COVID-19 response, including by maintaining adequate stocks of needed medicines while also pursuing export licenses to enable access to our medicines made in India for patients across the world.
In Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Mongolia, a special cross-functional task force called the CARE Team - COVID-19 Alleviation Response - was formed to actively aid in expanding access to needed medicines.
During the peak of the pandemic in these countries, there were about 300,000 COVID-19 cases on any day. Viatris stepped in at this critical moment and provided widespread and cost efficient access to remdesivir and molnupiravir by working with governments and other relevant stakeholders, enabling export of these medicines from India to meet patient needs. We supplied a total of 2.5 million vials of Desrem™ (remdesivir) and 40 million capsules of Molnatris™ (molnupiravir) across these countries. In total, the treatments reached about 1.5 million patients in this region.
Because we know that access is about more than supplying medicines, we also provided information to hospitals and healthcare providers via webinars and partnerships with medical societies and local governments. Also, we maintained a 24-7 toll-free helpline number for patients in India to advise on the availability of medicines.
Addressing the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Although COVID-19 infections are growing less deadly as populations develop greater immunity, the impacts of the pandemic are still being felt. The pandemic revealed stark inequities in care in and between countries, strained healthcare systems, left chronic conditions undiagnosed or poorly treated and underscored the huge importance of strong supply chains prepared for future global
health emergencies. Viatris continues to seek to understand the challenges faced by people and systems and to co-create solutions that advance us collectively toward the shared objective of equitable, sustainable access.
A prominent element of the conversation centers on how to ensure availability of essential medicines. Thanks to our large and diverse supply network, we have been able to address some of the causes and apply solutions for supply disruption. The global network that Viatris sources from, both internally and externally, is a true asset in ensuring agile and responsive supply targeted to emerging needs. Moving medicines across borders quickly and safely is critical to ensure access where it is most needed, especially in pandemic settings when countries may be at different phases of infection waves and face rapidly evolving needs.
Building Pandemic Preparedness
We are working with stakeholders across the globe to prepare for future pandemics. The work includes understanding how healthcare providers and systems can better help patients and respond to the needs of communities.
Building resilient health systems that can meet patient needs on an ongoing basis and respond rapidly and equitably to surges of infectious disease is critical. Our diverse efforts to advance this preparation include the following:
- Viatris represents the private sector on the Board of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, a unique public-private partnership and one of the largest international financing mechanisms for healthcare delivery. The Global Fund comprises 30% of the international financing for HIV programs, 75% for TB programs and 60% for malaria programs.1 In response to COVID-19, the Global Fund also became a primary funder of programs for COVID-19 and pandemic preparedness in low-income countries. The unique partnership model of the Global Fund brings together the public and private sectors with impacted communities to develop people-centered access solutions.
- Viatris has worked to understand not only the physical health effects of the pandemic, but also the mental effects. For example, in Brazil we sponsored a study of more than 2,000 workers of the impact of COVID-19 on mental health and wellbeing. The research was conducted by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation and the University of São Paulo. The findings are being used to help shape mental health and oncology policies as well as raise awareness of the important role of patient involvement.
- Building on our work born from the pandemic that identified gaps and potential solutions for integrating care of HIV and NCDs, we leveraged our partnership with the NCD Alliance in 2022 to advocate and raise awareness of the issues at events including the UN Global Assembly (UNGA) 2022 and the International AIDS Society annual conference. We helped develop an advocacy toolkit targeted at national and regional NCD alliances to unlock local funding for NCDs and its comorbidities.
- We collaborated in Japan with Minacare and a specialist in health, health policy and internal medicine on the first study investigating the changes in physician visits and medication prescriptions for NCDs before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings will inform decision makers about the management of NCDs in future pandemics.
Sources
1The Global Fund
