12 December 2017
Geneva, 12 December 2017 — The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) has signed collaborative agreements with additional patent offices, Argentina’s National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) and Brazil’s National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) to augment data on MedsPaL, its signature resource for patent and licensing information in developing countries. Argentina’s and Brazil’s national patent offices are contributing crucial data on the intellectual property status of medicines on the World Health Organization’s Model List of Essential Medicines (WHO EML) to guide public health actors in making procurement and supply decisions.
To date, the MPP has signed eight agreements with national and regional offices, including with the European Patent Office, which provides automatic data feeds from the European Patent Office’s public database Espacenet. Memoranda of Understanding with the patent offices of Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador and South Africa help keep MedsPaL information current and relevant for users.
Today, at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standing Committee on the Law of Patents, the MPP announced the expansion of MedsPaL to other medicines on the EML. Intellectual property information on seven cancer drugs have been added to the database, which originally focused on HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis medicines.
The MPP’s HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis activities are fully funded by Unitaid.
The Medicines Patent Pool is a United Nations-backed public health organisation working to increase access to HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis treatments in low- and middle-income countries. Through its innovative business model, the MPP partners with industry, civil society, international organisations, patient groups and other stakeholders to prioritise, forecast and license needed medicines and pool intellectual property to encourage generic manufacture and the development of new formulations. To date, the MPP has signed agreements with nine patent holders for thirteen HIV antiretrovirals, one HIV technology platform, two hepatitis C direct-acting antivirals and a tuberculosis treatment. The MPP was founded and is funded by Unitaid.
www.medspal.org
www.medicinespatentpool.org
Press and Media
The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) is a United Nations-backed public health organisation working to increase access to and facilitate the development of life-saving medicines for low- and middle-income countries. Through its innovative business model, MPP partners with civil society, governments, international organisations, industry, patient groups, and other stakeholders to prioritise and license needed medicines and pool intellectual property to encourage generic manufacture and the development of new formulations.
To date, MPP has signed agreements with 22 patent holders for 13 HIV antiretrovirals, one HIV technology platform, three hepatitis C direct-acting antivirals, a tuberculosis treatment, a cancer treatment, four long-acting technologies, a post-partum haemorrhage medicine, three oral antiviral treatments for COVID-19 and 16 COVID-19 technologies.
MPP was founded by Unitaid, which continues to be MPP’s main funder. MPP’s work on access to essential medicines is also funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Government of Canada, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Government of Flanders. MPP’s activities in COVID-19 are undertaken with the financial support of the Japanese Government, the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the German Agency for International Cooperation, and SDC.