Community investment

The Foundation's mission is to bring promise, hope and belonging to people living with a rare condition and those who care for them. Its ambition is to address health disparities within and among the rare disease community and ensure that all underserved communities have equitable pathways to the care, services, and resources they need to live healthier lives. ACF creates a positive impact on communities around the world through two funding streams: its signature initiative, Rare Belonging® and its community giving programme, Local Needs.

We also donate medicines free-of-charge through patient assistance and access programs. Our largest program is AZ&Me in the US, and we support our rare disease community through the Alexion Access Foundation, also in the US.

Our processes are aligned to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Guidelines for Medicines Donation, revised 2010, for quality assurance, presentation, packing and labelling and the appropriate distribution of donated medicines. We only donate product as a response to an expressed need.

We are members of the Partnership for Quality Medical Donations (PQMD) and coordinate global product donations through established partners experienced in humanitarian settings who follow PQMD Guidelines.

In partnership with trusted non-profit partners, we support disaster relief through financial donations, product donations, and other solutions to allow greater access to care. We are committed to working with all health system stakeholders to enable the supply of medicines to patients and to support the resilience and recovery of healthcare facilities in communities with the greatest unmet need.

No two humanitarian emergencies or disasters are alike. We perform a needs assessment to determine our ability to respond. Our priorities are always to ensure the safety of our employees, that patients continue to be supplied with life-changing medicines, and to support the humanitarian relief efforts.

We focus on meeting urgent health needs, particularly for vulnerable populations and underserved groups, taking into consideration recovery and rebuilding complexities. By taking a holistic approach to healthcare – recognising its interconnection with access to clean water, sanitation, food, and shelter – we aim to improve access to quality, patient-centered care.

Our global partners include Americares, Direct Relief, The British Red Cross, International Health Partners UK, International Medical Corps, Project Hope and UNICEF. We may also work with local teams and partners in our response.

In 2025, we contributed $10.7 million in financial and non-financial donations (2024: $11.2 million) through disaster relief and public health responses.