Dates: 20 May 2018 - 25 May 2018
Geneva
During this year’s World Health Assembly, the WHO Director-General report on Addressing the global shortage of, and access to, medicines and vaccines stated that one of the actions considered by the Secretariat as having the greatest potential impact on access to safe, effective and quality medicines is the expansion of the Medicines Patent Pool to include all antimicrobial medicines and patented medicines from the WHO Essential Medicines List.
The MPP welcomed this report and thanked Unitaid for the continuous support and WHO, Member States and other stakeholders for having encouraged the global health community to test his innovative patent pooling approach in other disease areas. We are looking forward to intensifying the collaboration.
The MPP also welcomed the report by the Director-General on the Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (GSPOA), which also recommends expansion of the MPP to other diseases or technologies.
Finally, the MPP followed with attention discussions for the Preparation for a high-level meeting of the General Assembly on ending tuberculosis and for the Preparation for the third High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases, both to be held in 2018.
Read MPP’s interventions on the Global strategy and plan of action on public health, innovation and intellectual property, and on Addressing the global shortage of, and access to, medicines and vaccines.
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.