Achieving Sustainable Access to Medicines and other Health Technologies
MPP contributes to diversified and sustainable manufacturing capacity both through its voluntary licensing model and its transfer of technology expertise. These mechanisms could enable manufacturers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to more rapidly integrate new technologies, and thus respond more quickly to local and regional public health needs.
Over recent years, MPP has progressively refined its licensee selection criteria to allow for greater geographical diversification of its manufacturing partners. Thus, while continuing to engage with manufacturers with a wide geographical footprint, MPP has increasingly been working with local and regional manufacturers. Today, MPP has over 50 licensees spread across 16 countries in all continents.
Some of this work is already resulting in significant supply of treatments from local/regional manufacturers. For example, in HIV, MPP licences have contributed to the supply of dolutegravir-based treatments from manufacturers located in three African countries.
MPP’s work with WHO and other partners on the mRNA Technology Transfer Programme also includes manufacturing entities across 15 LMICs.
In order to continue to support MPP’s objective around local and regional manufacturing, the MPP Board has recently approved additional measures to encourage and stimulate greater interest and investment in the local and regional manufacturing of new products. These include issuing geographically focused Expressions of Interest (EoIs) to identify potential manufacturers from specific regions or countries, and extending conditional offers of a licence to promote broader inclusion. These would be undertaken in collaboration with innovators that license to MPP and implemented in specific, targeted cases.
The mRNA Technology Transfer Programme is central to MPP’s strategy to support the development of local and regional manufacturing capacity. This capacity has the potential to reach beyond COVID-19 and could see its application to diseases of regional significance.
The Seventy-fourth World Health Assembly’s Resolution 74.6 stressed the need for local and regional production as a means of achieving sustainable access to medicines and other health technologies, as well as strengthening national health emergency preparedness and response.
