1 December 2017

Greg Perry, Executive Director

 

This World AIDS Day, we are pleased to acknowledge the international community’s progress in ensuring that people living with HIV have the tools necessary to lead long, healthy lives. Last week, UNAIDS reported a record 20.9 million people are now accessing antiretroviral therapy, a threefold increase since Unitaid created the MPP in 2010 to support the HIV response. The MPP is proud of the part it has played over the years to improve the availability of low-cost, high-quality medicines in low- and middle-income countries. To date, our generic partners have distributed more than five billion doses of WHO-recommended antiretrovirals, the equivalent of 14 million patient years of treatment.

This past year, we also welcomed our partners steps to produce, register and rollout new HIV treatment regimens that could be game changers in advancing standard of care. Sixteen companies are currently developing new HIV treatment dolutegravir (DTG), an easily administered tablet taken once-daily, and tenofovir alafenamide (TAF). In August, Mylan received Tentative Approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its combination product tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, lamivudine and dolutegravir (TLD) and expects to distribute the three-in-one in developing countries next year. Unitaid and partners’ ground-breaking pricing agreement to accelerate the delivery of low-cost TLD, made possible through voluntary licensing, will boost scale-up as well.

The UNAIDS theme for WAD 2017, the right to health, underscores the fundamental necessity of ensuring all can access new technologies and treatments such as DTG and TLD – technologies that improve adherence and fight resistance. As we take stock of how far we have come over the past seven years, we also are aware of the road ahead. Seventeen million people still lack access to HIV treatment. We must redouble efforts to reach all those in need.

The MPP’s HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis C activities are fully funded by Unitaid.

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 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.