Geneva – The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) strengthen collaboration in areas including intellectual property management strategies, information sharing, and capacity building, in order to advance the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

“WIPO has been an instrumental partner of MPP throughout the years and today we are delighted to better articulate our collaboration and bring it to the next level,” says Charles Gore, Executive Director of MPP. “Gathering and sharing knowledge and patent information is essential, one example of which is the collaboration over the years in collecting patent data on essential medicines. We are looking forward to closer engagement, including on intellectual property management strategies for COVID-19 treatments and technologies.”

“We look forward to joining WIPO’s expertise in Intellectual Property and innovation to the MPP’s efforts to increase access to, and facilitate the development of, life-saving medicines for low-and middle-income countries,” said Amy Dietterich, Director of WIPO’s Global Challenges Division.  “This collaboration aligns perfectly with WIPO’s central mission of leading the development of a balanced and effective international IP system that enables innovation and creativity for the benefit of all.”

The two parties agree to work together in different fields including intellectual property management strategies, information sharing and capacity building.  The main areas of cooperation include:

i). Facilitating innovation and access to health technologies for COVID-19 by:

• exploring IP management strategies that could facilitate innovation and access to such technologies, with a special focus on low- and middle-income countries;
• sharing information and tools on our respective websites.

ii). Promoting patent transparency and the collection of patent information on essential medicines, by

• engaging in a coordinated manner with national and regional patent offices to collect and share relevant data;
• exploring the establishment of data/functionality linkages between the PATENTSCOPE and MedsPaL databases;
• exploring opportunities to present in a coordinated manner MedsPaL, Pat-INFORMED, and PATENTSCOPE in various fora such as symposiums, webinars, and conferences.

iii). Collaborating on licensing and technology transfer by:

• Coordinating events and activities, such as training activities, on licensing and technology transfer. This coordination includes technical assistance activities for WIPO Member States, and relevant activities and programs such as those conducted by WIPO’s SMEs and Entrepreneurship Support Division, and by the WIPO Academy.

iv). Sharing information at the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP):

• when requested by WIPO Member States, present MPP’s work, including its patents and licenses database MedsPaL, to the SCP.

v). Exploring potential synergies between the two organisations activities to support early-stage research and development (R&D) in the fight against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), malaria, and tuberculosis by:

• conducting regular consultations between MPP and WIPO and making links available on both websites.

vi). Exploring ways in which dispute resolution provisions may be further incorporated in MPP agreements.

WIPO was recently invited by MPP’s Governance Board to join board meetings as a non-voting observer, a status shared by others including the World Health Organization (WHO). WIPO is currently represented by Ms. Dietterich.