8 November 2016
Geneva, 08 November 2016 —The Medicines Patent Pool welcomes the report published today by the Lancet Commission on Essential Medicines Policies and its recognition that the MPP model, or a similar approach, could support the international public health commitment to access to essential medicines. The Lancet Commission, a group of 21 independent experts, has produced a timely review of approaches to ensuring equitable access to treatment. It concludes that “there is great potential for expanding access to…new essential medicines through licensing of patents through patent pooling.”
As the report notes, several medicines on the World Health Organization Essential Medicines List, especially new HIV antiretrovirals and curative hepatitis C antivirals, must be made more widely available. This is a particularly acute need in low- and middle-income countries where HIV and hepatitis C prevalence is high.
The MPP, partnering with industry and other stakeholders, has signed licences with seven patent holders for 12 antiretrovirals and one hepatitis C medicine, including nine medicines listed on the WHO’s Essential Medicines List for adults and children of different ages. MPP’s generic manufacturing partners are actively producing these treatments as single formulations and in fixed dose combinations for up to 131 low- and middle-income nations. The MPP has also worked with industry partners to increase the availability of three other essential HIV medicines: darunavir paediatrics, nevirapine and valganciclovir, a treatment for an opportunistic infection.
The Lancet Commission report offers steps towards addressing access to medicines challenges in an effort to successfully meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including the right of all to universal health coverage. We look forward to engaging with the Commission experts as well as other public heath actors — governments, the private sector, civil society, patient groups and international organisations – to continue a productive dialogue on bettering health outcomes through promoting the widespread availability of appropriate treatment.
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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.