27 January 2017
Item 8.4 Evaluation and review of the Global Strategy and Plan of Action (GSPOA) on public health, innovation and intellectual property (IP)
The Global Strategy and Plan of Action (GSPOA) on public health, innovation and intellectual property is a key initiative to promote new thinking on innovation and access to medicines and encourage needs-driven research targeting diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries. The Medicines Patent Pool is one concrete example of successful implementation of the GSPOA where it was originally proposed as a mechanism to promote transfer and access to health-related technologies (Element 4.3). We thank Member States for having encouraged the global health community to test this new approach and UNITAID for taking the lead in establishing the MPP as the first public health patent pool, initially focusing on HIV, and now expanded to hepatitis C and tuberculosis (TB). We are now pleased to inform Member States that we are embarking on an analysis of the feasibility of expanding the mechanism further to patented essential medicines.
The MPP looks forward to collaborating with Member States to continue developing its work, including possible interaction with other new incentive mechanisms to promote access and innovation in public health.
One area needing further policy experimentation is TB, the leading cause of infectious disease mortality with a significant gap in research and development investments. New incentive mechanisms in the form of push and pull funding, combined with IP and clinical data pooling, hold significant promise to promote the development of new TB regimens. This week, the MPP announced its first TB licence on pipeline medicine sutezolid to accelerate its development and facilitate affordable access. We hope to work closely with Member States, communities, pharmaceutical industry, drug developers and civil society to address this critical public health challenge.
The MPP looks forward to the EB’s evaluation of the GSPOA and to reviewing additional recommendations for addressing innovation and access gaps in public health, particularly in areas such as TB and antimicrobial resistence.
Press and Media
The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) is a United Nations-backed public health organisation working to increase access to and facilitate the development of innovative medicines and other health technologies 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 health products 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 and Coeffient Giving. MPP’s activities in technology transfer are undertaken with the financial support of the Japanese Government, the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the German Agency for International Cooperation, the Government of Flanders and SDC.