Geneva, 28 July 2018 - The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) welcomes the new global guidelines for the care and treatment of persons diagnosed with chronic hepatitis C virus infection published today by the World Health Organization. These guidelines recommend treating all people aged 12 and above living with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection (with the exception of pregnant women) and recommends the use of pan-genotypic regimens. The MPP signed a licence agreement for pan-genotypic direct-acting antiviral daclatasvir (DAC) and its combinations with Bristol-Myers Squibb in November 2015. Since then, ten generic manufacturing partners of the MPP signed a licence to produce lower-cost versions of these products for sale in 112 low- and middle-income countries. Four MPP licensees have already filed daclatasvir (DAC) 30mg and 60mg for regulatory approval through the WHO Prequalification Program and three more plan to do so in 2019.  One manufacturer has already received approval from the Expert Review Pan...

Strategy and Related Feasibility Study Call for the Expansion of the MPP’s Mandate to Patented Medicines on the World Health Organization’s Model List of Essential Medicines Geneva, 24 May 2018 — The Medicines Patent Pool Foundation (MPP) released its five-year strategic plan during a side event at the 71st World Health Assembly this evening. The strategy calls for renewed efforts to reach people living with HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) with better-adapted, affordable medicines. Based on a feasibility study also presented at the MPP-partner event, The Path to Universal Health Coverage: Access to Affordable Treatments, the plan supports the expansion of the MPP model to other patented medicines with high medical value, starting with small molecules on the World Health Organization Model List of Essential Medicines (EML). “Over the past eight years, the MPP has made significant inroads in supporting the scale-up of new antiretrovirals, as well as curative...