Geneva, 3 December 2018: The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) has confirmed funding awards from two major agencies that will support its mandate expansion into patented essential medicines on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Essential Medicines List (EML) - and those with strong potential for future inclusion. The Wellcome Trust will grant 105,000 CHF and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) will award 248,400.00 CHF. The MPP was founded in 2010 to increase access to, and facilitate the development of, life-saving medicines for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) through an innovative approach to voluntary licensing and patent pooling. Initially the foundation worked with HIV, later expanding to hepatitis C and tuberculosis (TB). In 2016, the WHO recommended the expansion of the MPP to “all disease areas, and for all patented essential medicines on the WHO EML to be licensed into the Pool.” The MPP launched its new five-year strategy in May 2018, which included a feasibility study...

Geneva, 20 November 2018 – The Access to Medicine Index (ATM) has today issued its biennial report giving high-ranking scores in its Patents and Licensing section to those companies that have negotiated licences for antiretrovirals and hepatitis C medicines through the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP). The report acknowledges the role of the MPP as “the central independent driver of access-oriented licensing - and that licences agreed via the MPP include the majority of the access-oriented terms and conditions looked for by the Index.” The ATM index independently assesses the top 20 pharmaceutical companies on their efforts to improve access to medicines in developing countries, including how companies manage their patents and licensing responsibly and with transparency. The top four places in the Patents and Licensing chapter go to GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK); Merck & Co., Inc.; Gilead Sciences Inc.; and Bristol-Myers Squibb – all licensing partners of the MPP. “This is an excellent and important report f...