MPP - Increasing equitable access to innovative medicines and other health technologies through public health-oriented voluntary licensing and technology transfer.
Challenges
Many developing countries around the world do not have access to affordable, lifesaving medicines. To achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3: “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all, at all ages”, essential medicines must be affordable. Patents are intended to reward innovation, but they can sometimes contribute to significant gaps in ensuring access to quality, appropriate, affordable, safe and effective medicines and technologies, particularly in lower-resource countries.
Solutions
Since Unitaid founded the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) in 2010, it has played a critical role in addressing the availability and affordability of quality assured medicines through negotiating voluntary licences with patent holders. Building on its success in creating access to treatments for HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis over the course of the first two grant periods (2010-2020), MPP has expanded its scope in this third grant period (2021-2025) to include long-acting technologies as well as patented medicines that feature on WHO’s Essential Medicines List.
Licences negotiated by MPP permit other pharmaceutical manufacturers to produce generic versions of patented medicines for low- and middle-income countries that increase competition and help bring prices down. Licences also provide the freedom to develop new treatments, such as paediatric formulations and fixed-dose combinations.
“The Medicines Patent Pool was established as a landmark initiative to expand access to treatments for priority diseases. Over the last decade, MPP has become a strong partner in global health, working to facilitate access to HIV and hepatitis C medicines in low- and middle-income countries through voluntary licensing and patent pooling. With its impressive track record, MPP has a critical role to play in making affordable versions of patented essential medicines and technologies available to those who need it the most, including for COVID-19.”
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO)
Progress so far
Since it was founded in 2010, MPP has revolutionised the access landscape for new treatments in lower-resource countries. Through licensing agreements with more than 20 patent holders for major antiretroviral HIV drugs, hepatitis C antivirals, TB treatments and an HIV technology platform, MPP is currently working with more than 55 generic manufacturers and product developers to ensure access to affordable quality medicines.
MPP-negotiated voluntary licence for Dolutegravir (DTG), secured less than a year after FDA approval of the original product, and subsequent sublicensed to a large pool of generic manufacturers, made this highly effective HIV treatment widely available at much lower cost. Estimates show that by 2030, MPP’s licensing agreements will save more than 170,000 lives and generate 3.9 billion USD in cost savings by the global community.
The impact we are seeking
MPP increases the speed and scale of access to the most innovative medicines by making them more affordable.
MPP continues to improve affordable access to essential medicines for TB, HIV and hepatitis C, while exploring new opportunities for treatments. Since 2019, MPP’s mandate has been expanded to cover long-acting technologies (including for malaria), and is working to improve access to essential medicines for co-morbidities such as cancer or diabetes.
