According to a new report based on the Access to Medicines Index, the preference the European drug producers had been enjoying over the US equivalents has faded off in over the last two years.

The figures observed in the AMI, which has been released for the second time after 2008, was resultant of a joint effort made by as many as 22 institutional investors and fund managers.

These executives raised a sum worth $3.1 trillion in the asset of the industry. This brings GlaxoSmithKline, the US based Company, on the top of the list of the 20 most efficient drug providers in the country.

The index has been especially prepared in on order to provide the investors with an option of assessing the social role played by different drug producers.

Second in the line after GSK, was Merck & Co, followed by Switzerland's Novartis, Gilead Sciences and Sanofi-Aventis.

As per the Index for 2010, 6 out of the top 10 Companies are from the European region. Meanwhile, the remaining four are from US.

However, the index observed two years back showed that there were 7 Companies from European region, among the top 10 in the world, while the number for the US was merely 3.