Scoping partnerships based on impact
We scope a wide range of opportunities for our financial products to increase access to medical innovations. Our impact framework helps us to decide which potential partnerships to pursue by indicating where we can have the greatest impact. We measure impact against three categories: lives changed, money saved and markets shaped.
We ask key questions to determine whether we should pursue a partnership and to start developing appropriate metrics to project a potential agreement’s impact and monitor its performance against our projections.
To answer these questions, we draw on available evidence from sources including laboratory research, clinical trials, market surveys and in-country experiences with a particular health problem and/or product. Often there is limited published evidence available, so we verify assumptions through discussions with experts and other stakeholders.
Our impact indicators
Lives changed
Key questions:
- How many people will gain access to the product?
- How will their health improve and how many premature deaths will be averted?
Money saved
Key questions:
- How much has our guarantee reduced the price of the product?
- What does this mean in direct cost savings for procurers?
Markets shaped
Key questions:
- Will the guarantee sustainably improve affordability and procurement practices?
- Will increased demand visibility improve long-term supply security?
Aligning with global health priorities
Our framework additionally considers how the agreement will contribute to wider global health priorities and activities. We do this to ensure that each agreement is aligned with other global efforts to improve health and wellbeing, and will make a positive contribution.
Specifically, we aim to contribute to the following global health priorities:
- antimicrobial resistance
- climate change
- disease elimination
- health system strengthening
- non-communicable diseases
- pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response
- regional manufacturing
- women’s and girls’ health.
Our commitment to impact
MedAccess is a signatory to the Operating Principles for Impact Management, underlying our commitment to putting impact at the heart of our investments. The Impact Principles are designed to ensure that impact is meaningfully integrated throughout the life cycle of investments.
As a signatory, we must align our work with nine principles covering Strategic Intent, Origination and Structuring, Portfolio Management, Impact at Exit, and Independent Verification.
Projected impact
Before agreeing to provide a financial product, we develop impact projections against all three impact indicators and compare them against a scenario where MedAccess does not intervene.
All potential agreements must meet a minimum impact threshold to be considered. We use the framework to identify and prioritise high impact opportunities within our partnership pipeline, to ensure that capital is deployed for maximum health impact.
Read our Volume Guarantee Screening Tool for more information on how we assess the added benefit of a potential guarantee compared to the current scenario.
Monitoring impact
After entering into an agreement, we use the framework to monitor its impact. To ensure our impact estimates are based on verifiable and validated data, impact is calculated based on the total reach of products supported by the investment, capturing change from baseline.
We use these impact estimates to support the implementation of existing agreements and to guide our future strategy by considering how we can identify further impactful opportunities.
Impact after an agreement has ended
When an agreement is near the end of its term, we assess what we think will happen once it ends. After it ends, we undertake a two-step process to assess our longer-term market impact:
- End of agreement review – in the first year after the agreement ends, we review impact performance and lessons learned, implementing appropriate changes to our processes, and continue to track market-shaping impacts.
- Sustained impact review – within 2-4 years after the end of the agreement, we conduct analysis to determine whether market-shaping impacts have endured beyond the term of the agreement.
Validating our approach
BlueMark is a leading independent provider of impact verification services in the impact investing market. BlueMark is a subsidiary of Tideline Advisors, LLC, a specialist consulting firm that works with asset managers and allocators to design and implement best-in-class impact management and measurement systems.
MedAccess engaged BlueMark to independently verify our impact management practices. BlueMark’s assessment findings cover both areas of strength and areas for improvement, as reflected in the Verifier Statement.
Key contacts
For more information about our impact, please contact Tristana Perez, our Head of Impact.
