Mapping the journey of medicines and vaccines from discovery to delivery
The report is the Innovation Development and Access Pathway (IDAP), a framework developed by IFPMA to map the full end‑to‑end journey of how medicines and vaccines move from discovery to delivery at the point of care.
The report aims to describe the bottlenecks to accessing medicines and vaccines from the perspective of the innovative pharmaceutical industry, to support a shared understanding among policymakers, industry, and global health stakeholders. Its purpose is to enable more focused, collaborative solutions across the pathway and to ensure that scientific progress more effectively translates into real‑world patient access.
Creating an infographic to break down this complex process
A critical and instrumental component of the project was the design of an infographic diagram known as the IDAP chart. This chart summarised the entire pathway from laboratory research through to regulatory approval and delivery to patients, presenting the information in a way that was both clear and informative.
The diagram needed to clearly highlight and communicate several key aspects that impact the pathway at different stages, including:
- The activities of the pharmaceutical industry
- What happens after product launch and service delivery
- How the process operates at global, national, and local levels
- The policy enablers that can help unlock access at each stage.
Creating an accompanying supportive online brochure
Once the infographic was approved, it became the roadmap for explaining each stage in greater detail within the online brochure. These stages were:
- Research and Development (R&D) and the innovation ecosystem
- Regulatory processes, product registration, and life-cycle management
- Listing, treatment guidelines, procurement, and payment or reimbursement
- Health service delivery to patients, including distribution, supply chains, workforce capacity, diagnostics or referral networks, treatment, and follow-up
To further simplify the four-stage process and provide a direct wayfinding visual link between the infographic and the brochure, we created individual icons to represent each stage. Each stage was also assigned a distinct colour, making it easier to identify them when viewed within the infographic.
Together, the infographic and brochure transform a complex ecosystem into a clear, structured story, enabling IFPMA to communicate the challenges and opportunities in medicines and vaccine access with far greater clarity and impact.
Translating into other languages
We also worked on translating the original product for a Japanese audience. Adapting the original design to accommodate Japanese characters posed layout constraints—particularly in the central infographic, where space was already limited. This experience underscored the power of visual languages such as icons and structured charts: because they are universally recognisable, they help bridge linguistic differences and allow audiences to easily follow the journey, regardless of the language in which the surrounding content appears.
Ana-Maria Nia, Deputy Director, Communications at IFPMA had this to say:
“Working with To The Point to bring the end-to-end pathway to life was easy: they helped us transform this complex, multi‑layered approach into something clear and intuitive. Their use of a strong visual logic – particularly the universally understandable icons and pathway chart, allowed the story to be followed effortlessly, even across languages.”