8 February 2017
The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) is currently inviting interested product developers to indicate an interest in a sublicence for investigational tuberculosis treatment sutezolid. Patent holder Johns Hopkins University granted the MPP an exclusive, royalty-free licence covering all countries that currently have patents issued or pending for a combination therapy comprising sutezolid and two additional compounds used to treat TB such as pretomanid, delamanid, bedaquiline, rifampicin and moxifloxacin.
The agreement allows sub-licensees to develop, make, have made, use, file for regulatory approval, sell, import and export sutezolid worldwide. The full text of the agreement can be found here.
Per the licence’s terms and conditions, the foundation seeks to grant sub-licences to any entity that can demonstrate a willingness and capacity to further develop and commercialise the product and make the product widely available. The MPP will also require any sub-licensee to agree upon reasonable diligence requirements and development milestones.
Interested parties should also submit as much detail as possible to help MPP understand whether, and to what extent, a granted sub-licence will help improve sustainable access to improved regimens to treat tuberculosis. Applications should include an assessment of an organisation’s state of readiness, experience in tuberculosis research and development, and access to resources for further development.
Please contact the foundation’s General Counsel Chan Park for further clarifications about proposal format and content.
The MPP is an independent public health foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland, established with the support of UNITAID. The mission of the MPP is to increase access to medicines and technologies for HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis C, and facilitate development of better-adapted medicines and technologies, such as fixed-dose combinations and special formulations for children, by creating a pool of relevant patents for sub-licensing and product development.
For more information, please see our website, www.medicinespatentpool.org
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The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) is a United Nations-backed public health organisation working to increase access to and facilitate the development of life-saving medicines for low- and middle-income countries. Through its innovative business model, MPP partners with civil society, governments, international organisations, industry, patient groups, and other stakeholders to prioritise and license needed medicines and pool intellectual property to encourage generic manufacture and the development of new formulations.
To date, MPP has signed agreements with 22 patent holders for 13 HIV antiretrovirals, one HIV technology platform, three hepatitis C direct-acting antivirals, a tuberculosis treatment, a cancer treatment, four long-acting technologies, a post-partum haemorrhage medicine, three oral antiviral treatments for COVID-19 and 16 COVID-19 technologies.
MPP was founded by Unitaid, which continues to be MPP’s main funder. MPP’s work on access to essential medicines is also funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Government of Canada, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Government of Flanders. MPP’s activities in COVID-19 are undertaken with the financial support of the Japanese Government, the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the German Agency for International Cooperation, and SDC.