Global pharmaceutical companies must abandon charity-centric access models and adopt health equity as a core operational strategy, pharmacist and access strategist Ifeloluwa Adefolaju declared this month.

“Health equity cannot be an afterthought,” Adefolaju said during a forum on healthcare innovation. “If innovation is to truly serve humanity, it must be accessible. That means we need to redesign how treatments are priced, distributed, and supported—starting from the earliest stages of development.”

Adefolaju criticised the industry’s reliance on donations and affordability programs targeting low-income countries, saying these efforts often operate separately from the commercial decisions that shape real-world access. He called for tiered pricing structures that reflect economic diversity across regions and patient populations.

“Flat global pricing ignores the nuances of affordability,” he said, pointing to distinctions in the U.S. between Medicaid users and privately insured patients, as well as the need to consider resource constraints in emerging markets.

He urged pharmaceutical firms to rethink market segmentation through an equity lens, identifying underserved groups often missed by traditional approaches.

“Access is not only about supply, it is also about trust and relevance,” Adefolaju said. He highlighted the importance of community partnerships, multilingual education, and targeted outreach to reach historically excluded populations.

Patient support programs, often treated as add-ons, should instead be integrated from the earliest development stages. Financial assistance, adherence coaching, and navigation services must function as foundational infrastructure, especially for patients with low health literacy or fragmented care access.

“Equity must be visible in clinical trial design, pricing logic, and access planning,” he said. “It’s not the job of CSR or public affairs alone. It must be championed by everyone from commercial leads to the C-suite.” Adefolaju cited growing efforts by pharmaceutical companies to include equity metrics in their pipelines as evidence of progress.

He concluded by framing equity not only as a moral imperative but as a strategic advantage. “Companies that lead on equity will lead the future of healthcare,” Adefolaju stated. “This is how we create shared value—by ensuring innovation reaches all who need it, not just those who can afford it.”

As global health systems navigate post-pandemic recovery and rising innovation costs, Adefolaju’s challenge resonates: equity is no longer optional—it is the infrastructure of healthcare’s future.