12 December 2024
As 2024 draws to a close, we find ourselves at a critical juncture for global health. This year, the world witnessed significant shifts in the political and economic landscape, and 2025 looks to be equally challenging. In addition, although the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (or INB) negotiations on pandemic preparedness have made significant progress, there remain a number of important disagreements. These developments highlight the mounting pressure on the global public health system. But we cannot let this deflect us from our commitment to address the needs of people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Now, more than ever, it is crucial that we do not drop the baton but instead strengthen our resolve to ensure equitable access to life-saving medicines and health technologies. Now, more than ever, we must act together to meet these challenges and deliver transformative change.
This year, we celebrated the 10th anniversary of our groundbreaking partnership with ViiV Healthcare, a collaboration that has enabled 24 million people in LMICs to access dolutegravir-based HIV treatment. This partnership has supplied over one billion packs of affordable medicines, ensuring that more than 90 per cent of people on antiretroviral treatment in these countries now benefit from World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended DTG-based regimens.
Like so many organisations determined never to repeat the mistakes of COVID-19, pandemic preparedness remains central to our mission. The WHO/MPP-led mRNA Technology Transfer Programme is altering the landscape for vaccine production in LMICs and 2024 has seen the mRNA platform developed in South Africa by the Programme now being transferred to 14 other countries. By 2030, this will give the Programme Partners the ability to produce up to 60 million doses of mRNA vaccine annually but with the possibility of scaling up to 2 billion doses in the event of a pandemic.
This year, MPP published pivotal studies addressing access to monoclonal antibodies, obesity treatments for people living with HIV, pandemic preparedness and the science behind the mRNA Programme. We also launched a new version of MedsPaL, further streamlining access to critical global health data.
Ensuring that health products are affordable is not enough to guarantee they get to the people who need them. Viral hepatitis is a good example. We have licences for extremely effective drugs for both hepatitis B and hepatitis C, priced so low it is barely credible (a year’s supply of daily tenofovir for hepatitis B costs less than US$30) and yet uptake is also so low as to be barely credible. As a report by WHO in April made starkly clear, unless this changes, the already huge mortality will continue to climb. It will eventually overtake the combined mortality for HIV, TB and malaria. We are therefore working much more directly with countries to make sure they know what is available and to make sure that we license products they will buy. MPP is, however, a very small organisation and we can’t do this by ourselves. As with so much of what we do, we need to partner with others, in particular civil society, medical professionals, public health organisations and, of course, the governments themselves.
As always, our model is focused on being “win-win-win”. It has to work for patent-holders, for generic manufacturers and for public health. This year, the launch of our Value Report “Voluntary Licensing: Right for Health, Smart for Business” at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) during the World Health Assembly in Geneva demonstrated how innovative licensing models can align public health goals with the commercial interests of patent-holders. These efforts continue to prove that achieving health equity is not just a moral imperative but also a pragmatic business strategy that drives outcomes with impact.
Finally, I am proud to welcome two new members to our Governance Board and eight to our Community Advisory Panel. Leaders from across the globe are bringing their expertise and lived experiences to guide our work in HIV, pandemic preparedness, and other critical areas. Their insights are invaluable as we continue to prioritise equity and inclusivity. This is in addition to the insights from the four observers who sit on our Governance Board, from WHO, WIPO, the World Trade Organization and Unitaid.
We at MPP are committed to our model. We firmly believe it is an answer to the conundrum of how to ensure intellectual property delivers access as well as innovation. But the truth is that our model is under-utilised. As Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the WTO Director-General said in September: “Given that the Medicines Patent Pool has a proven track record of facilitating [licensing] agreements, we should focus on making this approach work even better.”
But, of course, to make this happen, we need you – our supporters, our advocates, our partners and our funders. Thank you for all you have done for us so far. Please keep doing it!
With very best wishes for the holidays Charles Gore Executive Director, Medicines Patent Pool
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.