Health equity
As a company with unmatched capabilities across an extensive, integrated portfolio, we are uniquely positioned to support customers, governments and health organizations as they address health disparities and improve health outcomes. Our shared commitment to building thriving health ecosystems and removing barriers to accessibility, allow Thermo Fisher to contribute to the scientific validity and broad applicability of our customers’ groundbreaking products, investigational studies and life-saving therapies.
Through our health equity efforts, we help to advance innovation, enable capacity building and expand market access in ways that can make a positive impact on the lives of patient populations worldwide.
Advance innovation: We partner with health centers, clinical sites and universities to develop more inclusive tools and protocols that can mitigate barriers to lifesaving therapies.
TrueDesign™ Genome Editor
Human genetic diversity plays a critical role in gene-editing, the cutting-edge technology researchers use to understand and develop new treatments for diseases.
In 2025, we were the first to integrate genetic analysis for up to eight global populations within our tool, enhancing the precision and safety of experiments and enabling more equitable health outcomes across genetic backgrounds.
Extended blood typing
Like genetic disease, blood type is inherited and therefore linked to ethnicity. Patients with extended and rare blood types are at higher risk of negative or fatal reactions to transfusions or transplants.
In 2024, we launched a DNA-based blood-typing test for research-use only. Called the Axiom™ BloodGenomiX™ Array, the test enables more expansive, efficient and precise identification of blood and its potential compatibility.
This solution, developed in collaboration with the Blood Transfusion Genomics Consortium, enables improved health outcomes for more patients globally.
Inclusive medical research
As part of our support for customers’ clinical development plans and trial design solutions, we integrate strategies throughout the drug development process so our customers can gain deeper insights into the efficacy and safety of cutting-edge medicines in different populations. Our dedicated teams support customers in building patient-focused strategies that emphasize cultural sensitivity and enhance transparency for a more inclusive research environment that addresses patient barriers to clinical trial participation.
To further embed population health strategies throughout the clinical development process, we:
- Enhance our customer value proposition by formalizing health equity strategy as a key offering within clinical trial design
- Enrich our alliance of clinical research sites serving patient populations that are clinically-relevant yet currently underrepresented in trials
- Deepen partnerships to reach patients where they live and develop recruitment strategies tailored to local communities
- Strengthen the relationship between population health and environment health with a new clinical trial carbon planning tool
Enable capacity building: To support resilient communities and stakeholders on the front lines of driving change, we invest in local infrastructure and empower healthcare professionals through education and training.
International Livestock Research Institute
We announced a collaborative, long-term commitment with the International Livestock Research Institute to expand and secure the food supply in developing nations. By pooling our resources, expertise, and cutting-edge research and development capabilities, we will be able to address current and future challenges in the livestock industry.
Patient Diversity Site Alliance
Our Patient Diversity Site Alliance — the first of its kind among our peers — connects research sites that are dedicated to building a more sustainable clinical trial ecosystem and fostering trust in trials by engaging authentically with communities. The alliance, established in 2023, promotes knowledge-sharing around evidence-based practices for recruiting, retaining and engaging representative and clinically relevant populations. In 2024, we conducted a survey to help us better understand which aspects of patient engagement and enrollment are most important to sites, how these services are implemented at the site level and the associated costs. Our learnings have enabled us to offer enhanced population-specific support and solutions, better connecting sites to clinical trial opportunities.
- 92% alliance sites conduct proactive community outreach
- 89% have interpreters/translators readily available
- 26 therapeutic areas covered
Colleague-driven health initiatives
Our colleagues amplify our global commitment to improve health outcomes through impactful local and skills-based volunteerism. Engagement peaks during our annual Healthier Communities campaign, when colleagues take advantage of various opportunities to get involved—from assembling clean birthing kits that Birthing Kit Foundation Australia sends to pregnant women and healthcare providers in under-resourced areas, to building mechanical hand prostheses with The Hand Project for individuals in low- and middle-income countries. Additionally, colleagues from North America, Latin America, and Asia Pacific supported our partner Project HOPE™ by contributing over 250 hours to develop marketing and career training tools that help in-country staff enhance the wellbeing and treatment outcomes for young people living with HIV in Nigeria.
Global access program: Our global access program contributes to a more democratized healthcare environment by providing affordable and accessible offerings tailored to qualifying LMICs. With solutions that span the entire global health supply chain, we serve customers in more than 89 LMICs through this program and work with key stakeholders to empower community partners and influence public health policy.
In 2024, we established a collaboration with the TRACE Wildlife Forensics Network, whose mission is to promote forensic science in wildlife law enforcement. By extending global access pricing to the network’s wildlife forensics laboratories, we have enabled labs in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa to prosecute wildlife traffickers who are often perpetrators of human, drug and weapons trafficking.
Enabling global labs: Our trade-in program with the nonprofit organization Seeding Labs places our equipment in labs around the world where it was not previously available to enable more robust research, enhanced STEM education and sustainable scientific institutions. With deep roots in Latin America, our partnership is now making a difference in 30 LMICs. We also work with longtime partners like The Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) to make product donations that empower LMICs to expand testing capabilities and mitigate public health threats. In 2024, we partnered with the APHL to facilitate a donation of nearly 800 PureLink™ Viral RNA/DNA Mini Kits to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they will increase local laboratories’ capacity to address health crises across the country.
Endnote:
1.This figure may not match the one found in the Data summary due to rounding.