Geneva, 15 February 2018 -  The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) signed a collaborative agreement with the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), an intergovernmental organisation that facilitates cooperation among 19 African states in patent and intellectual property issues. ARIPO will support the continued improvement of, and data collection for, MedsPaL, the MPP’s signature resource for patent and licensing information in low- and middle-income countries. The MPP launched MedsPaL in 2016 to provide information on the patent and licensing status of HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis medicines. It expanded the database in late 2017 to include other patented medicines on the World Health Organization’s Essential Medicines List. Today, MedsPaL covers 6,800 national patent applications in more than 110 countries for more than 70 priority treatments. ARIPO is the second regional patent organisation to sign a collaborative agreement with the MPP.  The foundation also has a memorandum of unde...

The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) is currently inviting interested product developers to indicate an interest in a sublicence for investigational hepatitis C (HCV) treatment ravidasvir. Pharco Pharmaceuticals granted the MPP a non-exclusive, royalty-bearing licence which allows sublicensees to develop, make, have made, use, file for regulatory approval, sell, import and export ravidasvir. The full text of the agreement can be found here. Per the licence’s terms and conditions, the MPP seeks to grant sublicences to any entity that can demonstrate a willingness and capacity to further develop and commercialise the product and make the product widely available in the Territory. The MPP will also require any sublicensee to agree upon reasonable diligence requirements and development milestones. Interested parties should also submit as much detail as possible to help MPP understand whether, and to what extent, a granted sublicence will help improve sustainable access to improved regimens to treat HCV. Applicat...