The Medicines Patent Pool Welcomes Extension of MPP-Gilead HIV Licences to Include Belarus, Malaysia and Ukraine
24 August 2017
Geneva, 24 August 2017 — The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) welcomes yesterday’s announcement by biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences that it will extend its HIV licences signed with the MPP to include three additional countries, namely Belarus, Malaysia and Ukraine. Gilead Sciences is a long-standing partner of the MPP and has signed licensing agreements for products containing tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), tenofovir alafenamide (TAF), cobicistat (COBI) and elvitegravir (EVG), allowing their generic manufacture and sale in 100 to 112 low- and middle-income countries. Thirteen MPP sublicensing partners are currently developing and manufacturing these medicines as standalones and in combination.
“The MPP is pleased to work with long-term partner Gilead to broaden access to treatments containing TDF, TAF, COBI and EVG to many more people living with HIV,” said Greg Perry, Executive Director of the MPP. “Further to this announcement, we will work with Gilead to amend our licences and sublicences to include Belarus, Malaysia and Ukraine, enabling more people living with HIV to benefit from quality-assured affordable generic versions of these medicines.”
The MPP also welcomes Gilead’s announcement that it will extend its bilateral licences on its hepatitis C medicines to include the three countries.
About the Medicines Patent Pool
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 twelve HIV antiretrovirals, one HIV technology platform, a tuberculosis treatment and two hepatitis C direct-acting antivirals. The MPP is funded by Unitaid.
Contact:
Sophie Thievenaz
Communications Manager
Medicines Patent Pool
Tel: +41 22 533 5063 | Mob: +41 79 870 85 52
sthievenaz@medicinespatentpool.org
