Associate Editor’s Commentary: Measuring Responsibility

The Access to Medicine Index (ATMi) is an attempt to measure and compare the corporate social responsibility of both innovator (20) and generics (7) companies based on a number of different (and often quixotic) indicators. According the Access to Medicine Foundation, the index "aims to help poor people in developing countries gain access to medicine by encouraging the pharmaceutical industry to improve its commitments and practices related to this issue." Since it's a comparison, the theory is that competition amongst companies will drive desirous "socially responsible" behaviors. A noble goal-but the devil is in the details. As Abraham Lincoln said, "You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today."