Innovation

Eli Lilly’s mission is to make medicines that help people live longer, healthier, more active lives. Its vision is: we will make a significant contribution to humanity by improving global health in the 21st century.

Aligned to its mission and vision and in order to contribute in achieving the third Sustainable Development Goal, Good Health and Well-Being, Eli Lilly has created an initiative called “Lilly 30x30” which aims to improve access to quality health care in resource-limited settings for 30 million people on an annual basis by 2030.

Aligned with the “30x30 initiative, the company has created the Lilly Global Health Programs to invest in projects for strengthening health organizations or health systems.

For example, specifically in the case of Mexico, diabetes represents a huge opportunity to make a difference in terms of health. To give a better perspective: 14% of total population in Mexico has diabetes, but only 50% are officially diagnosed, the other 50% do not even know they have it. Elli Lilly has leverage on the Lilly Global Health Program to create partnerships in Mexico in order run research around primary care levels which can drive more diabetes diagnosis. As a result we have the iniative Casalud, (a portmanteau of the Spanish words for “house” and “health”), which has three levels of partnerships:

• Public: Popular Insurance

• Private: Eli Lilly

• Social: Carlos Slim Foundation

Casalud uses a multi-pronged approach to improve detection, diagnosis and treatment of Type 2 diabetes, and it prevents the disease by raising awareness of key risk factors such as excess weight.

This model was created to be scalable, it is not just a pilot, and it was created to attend a critical problem of this disease in México, considering that the number of people living with diabetes is expected to increase from 11.5 million to 16 million between 2016 and 2035.

Casalud introduced a program of integrated mobile devices and continuing education to empower primary-care providers, including nurses and clinical workers. The mobile technology allows health-care workers and others to measure blood sugar and other vital indices as part of a regular checkup. Casalud also created an online information management system to coordinate patient care. Some clinics have only a small window to educate patients on improving their own quality of care, with this mobile technologies the education to patients is broader.

Inspiration

First it is part of Lilly’s mission and vision:

Mission: We make medicines that help people live longer, healthier, more active lives.

Vision: We will make a significant contribution to humanity buy improving global health in the 21st century.

Second: It comes from Lilly’s founders and from its shareholders. Lilly was founded by Colonel Eli Lilly, a man committed to creating a high quality medicines and in order to improve health, his phrase that quotes “Take what you find here and make it better and better”.

Nowadays the company continues committed with the same inspiration, and one of the most important stockholders of the company is an endowment which main demand to Lilly is to create sustainable models.

Third: It comes from its employees. The culture of the company, that all employees have the mindset to take theour business objectives as something personal, all employees believe that the health is a personal topic, and that they remember that the patients could be their families, friends, colleagues, etc. This creates the engagement and the commitment to Lilly’s mission and vision.

Overall impact

The access for health has been increasing. In the case of Mexico, Casalud was launched in 2009 in 7 Mexican states; by 2015, it has presence in 20 states, serving 1.3 million patients and it has been incorporated by the Mexican Government into its national strategy to tackle obesity and diabetes. This program is being evaluated to implement it in other countries in the world.

The impact has several effects. At an internal level it generates a commitment with the reason for being of the company. More than achieving goals or comply with metrics, it allows them to be embedded in the original objective of the company, the reason why it was created. In other hand, it achieves the improvement of the society in which they exist. And finally, it has an impact in terms of marketing with a brand positioning.

The effects in short terms are translated in personal enrichment, supporting directly to communities.

Business benefit

The benefit is creating a brand recognition and positioning as one of the most committed companies concerned about health access to all population.

Benefit creating relationships that leverage business, sharing best practices and innovating in business but with the main focus to improve lifes.

Even the programs are not created to have a direct benefit, in terms of business, the growth of diabetes diagnosis brings benefits to the society but it will also bring business to ElI Lilly.

Social and environmental benefit

Reduce through prevention the expansion of this disease X, which generate important monetary losses for governments, companies and directly for the people, in the treatment of this disease that affects to an important number of people.

This program brings education and awareness to the population to improve their quality life, and it is focused in the most efficient use of the current financial resources that governments, companies and people have.

Interview

Mariana Benavides, Global Health Programs Officer Manager