2010 Achievements:
- Provided $946.8 million in savings on behalf of 545,927 patients—approximately 7 percent more patients than we had supported the prior year. We increased the number of prescriptions filled through our programs to 4.1 million, a 7 percent increase over 2009.
- Enhanced the AZ&Me™ Prescription Savings program website to enable online applications for the AZ&Me™ Prescription Savings programs, and added a self-service option for tracking program enrollment, medication refills, and medication shipments
- Engaged with leading health-related organizations and government officials to successfully advance health initiatives
- Provided $21 million in contributions to more than 900 nonprofit organizations in the U.S.
- Launched the AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation’s Connections for Cardiovascular HealthSM program
- We launched a “clinic finder” tool on our Web site to help patients find a clinic in their area, to the extent possible, that was enrolled in our AZ&Me™ Prescription Savings program for health care facilities
In 2010, we monitored how the recession was affecting patients’ ability to access and pay for the medicines they’ve been prescribed, and continually examined what we can do to help more patients get the treatments they need. We examined important questions affecting patient health:
- How well were public programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and COBRA managing the rising economic pressures?
- To what extent were patients being affected by economic factors such as high unemployment, falling housing prices, market fluctuations, and changing demographics?
- How were patients making decisions about their own prescription plans?
There were no uniform answers. Different regions were affected in different ways, depending on their economic realities. Throughout the year, we took a number of steps to help patients and communities in a devastated economy.
