30 April 2021
Geneva – As the access to Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator marks one year since its launch, the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) welcomes the World Health Organization’s (WHO) call for expressions of interest for a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub and offers its experience and expertise to this initiative. The establishment of such a hub under ACT-A has a vital role to play in addressing two inter-related but longstanding problems that COVID-19 has starkly highlighted – the lack of vaccine capacity to meet a pandemic and the lack of local production in many parts of the world.
What is particularly important about this WHO initiative is that it addresses both short- and long-term needs. It will help meet the pressing demand for COVID-19 vaccines in the near term while in the longer term creating the infrastructure and technical know-how to produce routine vaccines locally once this pandemic subsides, thereby establishing sufficient local capacity to meet the needs of any future pandemic. This approach will lead to the sustainability necessary for longevity.
“During my time at WHO, we learned that using a technology hub to transfer technology to developing countries is feasible because we did it for influenza,” said Marie-Paule Kieny, Chair of the MPP Governance Board and former WHO Assistant Director-General, “but we also learned that you must guarantee sustainability, or you soon lose that new capacity.”
‘’What makes sustainability complex is that it requires significant political commitment,” said Martin Friede, coordinator of the Initiative for Vaccine Research at WHO. “Through the ACT Accelerator, we have galvanised important political commitment. Many manufacturers have already expressed their interest, and we are confident that the technology transfer hub will be a gamechanger.”
Licensing of intellectual property (IP) and technology transfer may be an integral part of the initiative, and MPP is delighted to offer WHO its expertise and experience in these areas. Over many years MPP has learned how to negotiate public health-oriented licences that strike the difficult balance between the rights of IP holders, the requirement for sustainability for licensed manufacturers and the critical needs of public health.
“We are delighted to offer to work with WHO on this technology transfer hub because, irrespective of COVID-19, there is a crying need for the world to move production of critical health technologies into low- and middle-income countries to ensure not just extra capacity, but also the supply security and shorter supply lines that come from a geographically dispersed manufacturing base are in place” said Charles Gore, MPP’s Executive Director. “This could be a perfect example of COVID-19 forcing us to build better for a safer, fairer future.”
Array ( [0] => Array ( [acf_fc_layout] => post_grid [show_latest_posts] => [post_grid_layout] => rectangular [background_colour] => bg-pale-yellow [posts_per_row] => 3 [posts_to_display_in_grid] => Array ( [0] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 45 [post_author] => 1 [post_date] => 2021-04-27 11:00:38 [post_date_gmt] => 2021-04-27 10:00:38 [post_content] => [post_title] => Disease Areas [post_excerpt] => While reaffirming its work in core areas – HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis – MPP has now expanded its mandate to new disease areas including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and COVID-19. [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => disease-areas [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2025-07-10 12:24:03 [post_modified_gmt] => 2025-07-10 10:24:03 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 9 [guid] => https://medicinespatentpool.org/what-we-do/disease-areas/ [menu_order] => 16 [post_type] => page [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [1] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 8703 [post_author] => 14 [post_date] => 2021-04-19 12:52:38 [post_date_gmt] => 2021-04-19 11:52:38 [post_content] => On behalf of the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), Charles Gore, Executive Director, delivered the following statement at the World Trade Organization (WTO)'s event held on 14 April 2021. 14 April 2021 Speaker: Charles Gore Throughout this pandemic, we have seen the same challenges unfolding health technology after health technology (personal protective equipment (PPE), then diagnostics, then vaccines). As soon as a technology proves to be effective, demand increases substantially, supply is unable to meet demand, equity issues arise, with low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) often losing out, and manufacturing countries placing constraints on exports. Part of it seems inevitable. It is hard to predict what will work, what is needed. Once a technology is known to work, we need very large quantities, almost immediately. There is clearly no magic bullet against that. Supply cannot be provided overnight for any technology. Not even for masks, let alone for far more complicated vaccines. Nevertheless, there are ways to try and address the current crisis. Significant efforts have clearly been made, with an unprecedented number of agreements between companies to try to increase manufacturing capacity. Massive investments have been made at risk by companies, as well as by governments. Repeatedly, the concept of broad licensing has been proposed as a way to expand supply, make use of existing manufacturing capacity across the globe and enable a more geographically diverse supply base. The importance of public health licensing has also repeatedly been flagged, by which I mean licensing that is developed with a clear objective to meet public health goals. Public health licensing, together with appropriate technology transfer, as practised by the Medicines Patent Pool over the past 11 years, is about seeking the right – and often difficult – balance between the legitimate commercial interests of innovators, the need for sustainability for the recipients of licences and the critical public health needs of society. And we can achieve this balance because we are a public health institution that is not commercially driven but which fully understands commercial realities. The result has been that these licences do indeed address public health needs. I would like to highlight some of the guiding principles under which we operate, MPP’s licences need to be: driven by the public health requirement for affordable, high-quality health technologies; focused on accelerating access by enhancing manufacturing capacity that is specifically geared towards addressing the needs of the most vulnerable, those that often otherwise lose out; non-exclusive, facilitating price reductions through competition and making use of the wide geographical footprint of suppliers around the world to ensure supply security and local production; transparent, as that is critical to achieving trust; flexible to adapt to the specific needs and circumstances; additional and complementary to other access approaches; and voluntary, counting on the commitment of all parties. It is not just a theoretical construct. This approach is currently in use in global health and has succeeded in delivering over 18 billion pills in over 140 countries. I will end by saying that the Medicines Patent Pool believes its public health licensing model can be part of the solution and will therefore continue to put its expertise and experience in this area at the disposal of the international community. [post_title] => The Medicines Patent Pool intervention at the World Trade Organization's convened event themed: “COVID-19 and Vaccine Equity: What Can the WTO Contribute?” [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => mpp-invervention-at-wto-covid19-vaccine-equity-event [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2021-04-19 12:55:28 [post_modified_gmt] => 2021-04-19 11:55:28 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://medicinespatentpool.org/?post_type=news-publications&p=8703 [menu_order] => 98 [post_type] => news-publications [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [2] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 8240 [post_author] => 14 [post_date] => 2021-01-18 09:45:21 [post_date_gmt] => 2021-01-18 09:45:21 [post_content] => Geneva – Today, the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (the JRC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will lay the foundation for cooperation between the two organisations in the field of intellectual property (IP) (patents, technologies and know-how) in health sector. “Research and innovation is where our hopes lie in the fight against COVID-19,” said Charles Gore, the Executive Director of MPP. “The European Commission has played a very strong leadership role in the global response to COVID-19 and the JRC, as European Commission’s IP wing, will be a key partner for MPP in exploring together how management of IP can bring about access and contribute to ending this pandemic.” “The JRC is exploring models of voluntary licensing and patent pooling to facilitate global and equitable access to health technologies to prevent, treat and cure COVID-19,” said Stephen Quest, Director General, the JRC. “MPP with its 10 years of proven experience in voluntary licensing is the most relevant public health organisation in this regard and we look forward to the impact that our collaboration will bring”. Through the newly signed MoU, the two organisations will work together to (i) identify mechanisms and incentives to encourage the beneficiaries of EU funding to make available their IP through MPP, (ii) find synergies on common public health initiatives such as the ACT accelerator, and (iii) collaborate beyond COVID-19 on access to essential medicines, among other aims. EU Commission recently reaffirmed its commitment to universal, equitable and affordable access to COVID-19 technologies and expressed support for rapid pooling of critical IP in times of crisis, for instance through a novel licensing system. Access full MoU About the JRC The JRC, which is the science and knowledge service of the European Commission, consists of an array of Competence Centres including the European Commission’s Central Intellectual Property Service (CIPS) and the Centre of Competence for Technology Transfer (CCTT). CIPS manages the European Commission’s intellectual property rights (IPR), such as patents, copyrights, trademark, and provides legal advice on IP to the Commission services including on in/out licensing of IPR to third parties. CCTT provides technology transfer policy related expertise and services to the European Commission and other institutions of the Union and operational support services to a broader range of stakeholders facing technology transfer related challenges and issues. [post_title] => MPP and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission partner in the field of intellectual property for COVID-19 and beyond [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => mpp-eu-commission-mou-covid19-ip [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2021-01-15 14:31:24 [post_modified_gmt] => 2021-01-15 14:31:24 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://medicinespatentpool.org/?post_type=news-publications&p=8240 [menu_order] => 124 [post_type] => news-publications [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [3] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 7715 [post_author] => 14 [post_date] => 2020-11-12 00:01:53 [post_date_gmt] => 2020-11-12 00:01:53 [post_content] => 18 companies join the effort by Medicines Patent Pool to accelerate global access to effective COVID-19 treatments via a pool for voluntary product licences Geneva – With COVID-19 infections surging worldwide, a united group of 18 companies representing a large portion of the world’s generic pharmaceutical manufacturers pledged to work together to accelerate access to hundreds of millions of doses of new interventions for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) via the non-profit Medicines Patent Pool (MPP). “This unprecedented cooperation from companies that are typically competitors represents a breakthrough in our efforts to level the playing field for access to drugs that will be crucial to controlling and defeating this pandemic,” said Charles Gore, Executive Director of MPP. “These are companies with an excellent track record of working with originators to ensure generic versions of their innovations meet high standards for quality – while answering the need for more affordable, accessible therapies.” Gore noted that collectively the 18 companies joining the pledge have the capacity to deliver substantial amounts of conventional drugs, technically known as “small molecules” in industry parlance, and an increasing ability to produce more molecules known as biologics. Biologics include monoclonal antibodies targeting COVID-19 that have shown promise as potential ways to either treat or prevent infections—but cost and manufacturing capacity pose substantial barriers to deploying them globally. Gore said he hopes the pledge by such a respected group of generic industry players to produce large volumes of high-quality COVID-19 treatments will encourage firms now developing either new or re-purposed therapies to negotiate agreements allowing rapid access to those in need. This can be either through licensing of their intellectual property, or where licences are not needed, facilitating ways to scale up manufacturing capacity to meet the high demands. “We welcome this pioneering collaboration and encourage others to join. Making sure there is enough supply capacity of potential game-changing treatments for COVID-19 is critical to ensure equitable access in low- and middle-income countries. Using the proven MPP model to ensure access to effective and affordable health solutions not only makes sense in this COVID-19 emergency but is the right thing to do,” said Dr Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid. The companies joining the effort are connected by their past work with MPP, an organisation created in 2010 by the global health initiative Unitaid to negotiate patent licence agreements with pharmaceutical companies that are placed in a pool to make them more easily accessible for generic manufacturers. Thus far, agreements negotiated by MPP with companies such as ViiV Healthcare, Bristol Myers Squibb and AbbVie have allowed generic producers to provide over 15 billion doses of HIV and hepatitis C medicines to low- and middle-income countries. Despite the logistical challenges of the pandemic, in the first six months of 2020 alone, MPP’s licensees have delivered three billion doses. Combining the capacity of generic firms with patent agreements negotiated by MPP is increasingly viewed as an important addition to efforts to ensure COVID-19 interventions are available outside of the world’s wealthiest countries. For example, the European Union has called for “maximizing accessibility” to the fruits of COVID-19 R&D via initiatives that include “the pooling of technology to any UN-endorsed patent pool, such as the Medicines Patent Pool.” The G20 joint Finance and Health Ministers’ statement in September, also cited voluntary licensing of intellectual property as one of the key tools in the COVID-19 response. Several signatories have stepped forward to underscore the importance of the pledge: “Working with MPP over the years has enabled Adcock Ingram to provide access to live saving medication to those in need in South Africa and its surrounds.” "Associating with MPP has put us at the forefront of improving the accessibility and affordability of HIV medication. Our values and vision are closely aligned and they have continuously inspired us to do more for this cause." – Arene Life Sciences "We are committed to the cause of providing increased access to affordable high quality life saving medicines in low- and middle-income countries in several therapy areas including HIV. We have worked successfully with MPP over the years to this effect and will continue our fight through these valuable partnerships." – Aurobindo “MPP is committed to fighting health disparity through its unique strategy and we are proud to be a part of this network with the common goal of ensuring access to medicines for all.” – Beximco “Medicines Patent Pool has led Paths of pharmaceutical products into People's lives.” – Celltrion "The capacity and capability of global leading generics pharmaceutical manufacturers have been better utilized with MPP’s coordination to make the life-saving HIV and hepatitis C medicines available and affordable in LMICs. We Desano feel proud to be part of this." “We are privileged to have partnered with MPP for the past decade which has led to creating a larger access to life-saving medicines across the globe; not only with HIV but for other therapies as well.” – Hetero "MPP is spearheading an initiative that is so imperative for the developing countries around the world to have access to affordable, lifesaving medicines. We acknowledge the sincere efforts of Medicines Patent Pool to work alongside generic manufacturers to accelerate the development of affordable medications to LMICs." – Lupin "Our company mission is contributing to the healthcare by supporting the improvement of medicine availability and affordability. It is great to work with MPP and Licensors to meet the urgent need of patients by providing more affordable medicines.” – Langhua Pharma "Access is at the core of all work undertaken by the team at MPP. This has helped in close cooperation between pharma and generics and has ensured that newer and safer medicines reach people across LMICs." – Macleods "We at Mangalam Drugs & Organics Ltd. take great pride in being associated with MPP that is striving relentlessly to provide rapid access to effective healthcare across the globe. Having partnered with this organisation has enabled us to envision beyond the ordinary. We look forward to continued alliance with them and to be able to build on each other’s strengths for sustainable benefits to those who have limited reach." "At Micro Labs we duly appreciate the initiative taken by the team at MPP. MPP's efforts rightly opportune generic players to leverage their capabilities in reaching out to more patient population with quality and affordable medicines." "We believe the collaboration with MPP on expanding treatment access to affordable Hepatitis drugs has made a huge impact in many countries. It has been particularly satisfying to be part of the solution to tackle Hepatitis pandemic." – Natco "Our Stridian organizational values of Integrity, Collaboration and Efficiency resonate very well with those of the Medicines Patent Pool. Over the years, our partnership has promoted inclusivity, and worked towards making life-saving drugs affordable and accessible to large parts of the lower and middle income countries, thereby making a significant difference to public health.” – Strides Pharma "The partnership with MPP & its licensing model has enabled supply of critical life-saving medicines to patients in low- & middle-income countries around the world.” – Sun Pharma "Our association with MPP has strengthened our resolve in combating the scourge of hepatitis C. The inclusion of Daclatasvir to our anti-hep C portfolio has helped us extend Daclatasvir as a highly affordable treatment option to thousands of patients, suffering from hepatitis C, thereby improving both, their access to treatment and clinical outcomes." – Zydus Cadila Full list of first signatories of the open pledge: [lgc_column grid="30" tablet_grid="50" mobile_grid="100" last="false"] Adcock Ingram Arene Aurobindo Beximco Celltrion Desano Emcure Hetero Langhua Pharma Laurus Labs Lupin Macleods Mangalam Micro Labs Natco Strides Pharma Sun Pharma Zydus Cadila [/lgc_column] [lgc_column grid="70" tablet_grid="50" mobile_grid="100" last="false"] [/lgc_column] Contact: Gelise McCullough Head of Communications | Medicines Patent Pool +41 79 685 64 36 gmccullough@medicinespatentpool.org [post_title] => Leading Generic Drug Makers Unite to Pledge Capacity for Developing and Delivering Affordable COVID-19 Interventions as Pandemic Intensifies [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => covid-19-generic-pledge-press-release [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2020-11-13 09:56:38 [post_modified_gmt] => 2020-11-13 09:56:38 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://medicinespatentpool.org/?post_type=news-publications&p=7715 [menu_order] => 150 [post_type] => news-publications [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [4] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 6476 [post_author] => 4 [post_date] => 2020-05-14 16:00:51 [post_date_gmt] => 2020-05-14 15:00:51 [post_content] => On 14th May, 2020, Health Action International, Knowledge Ecology International, Medicines Law & Policy, Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation, and Wemos convened a briefing in advance of the virtual 73rd session of the World Health Assembly. The session was moderated by Ellen ‘t Hoen, LLM, PhD, Director, Medicines Law & Policy; the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP)'s founding and former Executive Director, and included interventions from the following panelists:
Geneva – Today, the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (the JRC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will lay the foundation for cooperation between the two organisations in the field of intellectual property (IP) (patents, technologies and know-how) in health sector.
“Research and innovation is where our hopes lie in the fight against COVID-19,” said Charles Gore, the Executive Director of MPP. “The European Commission has played a very strong leadership role in the global response to COVID-19 and the JRC, as European Commission’s IP wing, will be a key partner for MPP in exploring together how management of IP can bring about access and contribute to ending this pandemic.”
“The JRC is exploring models of voluntary licensing and patent pooling to facilitate global and equitable access to health technologies to prevent, treat and cure COVID-19,” said Stephen Quest, Director General, the JRC. “MPP with its 10 years of proven experience in voluntary licensing is the most relevant public health organisation in this regard and we look forward to the impact that our collaboration will bring”.
Through the newly signed MoU, the two organisations will work together to (i) identify mechanisms and incentives to encourage the beneficiaries of EU funding to make available their IP through MPP, (ii) find synergies on common public health initiatives such as the ACT accelerator, and (iii) collaborate beyond COVID-19 on access to essential medicines, among other aims.
EU Commission recently reaffirmed its commitment to universal, equitable and affordable access to COVID-19 technologies and expressed support for rapid pooling of critical IP in times of crisis, for instance through a novel licensing system.
Access full MoU
About the JRC
The JRC, which is the science and knowledge service of the European Commission, consists of an array of Competence Centres including the European Commission’s Central Intellectual Property Service (CIPS) and the Centre of Competence for Technology Transfer (CCTT). CIPS manages the European Commission’s intellectual property rights (IPR), such as patents, copyrights, trademark, and provides legal advice on IP to the Commission services including on in/out licensing of IPR to third parties. CCTT provides technology transfer policy related expertise and services to the European Commission and other institutions of the Union and operational support services to a broader range of stakeholders facing technology transfer related challenges and issues.
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 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.