Geneva – The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) is proud to publish today its 2024 annual report, Breaking New Ground. The report demonstrates that MPP continues to bring positive change for millions of people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) across the globe.  

Access MPP’s 2024 Annual Report

Innovation central to continuing success 

As well as a significant expansion in treatment uptake, economic savings and health benefits, 2024 also saw the launch of MPP’s Value Project, which quantifies the benefits of MPP’s licences for originator companies. This is now being widely disseminated within the pharmaceutical industry as a way of engaging with them to share the many benefits of voluntary licensing, with a view to encouraging more licences.
 

Charles Gore, MPP’s Executive Director said: “The wider geopolitical context of conflict, polarisation and development aid cuts is seeing a significant detrimental impact on global health. But throughout 2024 MPP remained focused on its core objectives, resulting in a positive impact in enabling more affordable and high-quality health products for LMICs.

Since 2010, MPP has supplied over 52 billion doses of treatment through its licences, generating saving of US$ 2.3 billion to the international community. And because of MPP’s licence and the generic competition it creates, treatment for HIV consisting of tenofovir, lamivudine and dolutegravir (TLD) in a single daily tablet is now available at around $US 37 per person per year or about 10 cents per tablet.” 

Remarkable progress since 2010 

The figures below show that the UN-backed organisation has made remarkable progress since its inception in 2010 to the end of 2024: 

Uptake 

  • MPP licensees have supplied 52.19 billion doses of treatment. 
  • This is equivalent to 141.55 million patient-years of treatment, with one patient-year corresponding to the quantity of medicines needed to treat one person for one year. 

Economic impact 

  • The international community has saved US$ 2.3 billion by accessing MPP products. 
  • In addition, US$ 10 billion in theoretical expenditure has been avoided, the total investment that would have been required for the same level of drug uptake had the licence not been in place. 

Health 

  • 50,000 deaths have been averted through MPP licensing. 
  • 1.9 million deaths have been averted through the use of MPP-licensed products. 
  • 440,000 HIV virological failures have been averted through MPP licensing. 
  • 18 million HIV virological failures have been averted through the use of MPP-licensed products. 
  • 5.5 million additional patient-years have been treated through MPP licensing. 
  • 430,000 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) have been averted through MPP licensing. 
  • 25 million DALYs have been averted through the use of MPP-licensed products. 
  • 43 products or technologies have been licensed from 22 originator companies. 
  • 38 products have been developed and supplied by MPP licensees. 

Furthermore: 

  • By the end of 2024 affordable generic DTG, for adults and children, taken alone or in combination, had been supplied in 129 countries. 
  • A tailored licence for four upper-middle-income countries – Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Malaysia – is making it possible for the governments of those countries to  switch the vast majority of people living with HIV onto DTG-based treatment.
  • MPP signed a licence through WHO’s C-TAP, with SD Biosensor for their rapid diagnostic test for COVID-19, HIV, malaria and syphilis, as well as announcing a conditional licence from Ferring Pharmaceuticals for their heat-stable carbetocin, a deal made possible thanks to Unitaid. 
  • As part of the  MPP/WHO mRNA Technology Transfer Programme, Afrigen’s vaccine candidate, AfriVac 2121, has shown comparable efficacy and safety in animal models up to non-human primates.  
  • The mRNA platform developed by Afrigen has been transferred to Biovac for scale-up and in 2024 was transferred to four other companies across Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia, representing completion of the first phase of the Programme.
  • MPP continues to provide free patent and licensing information to the global health community through MedsPaL, which has a new user interface and contains some 30,000 patent applications for 198 key health products in 203 countries, and LaPaL, which features long-acting compounds and technologies. 

 

Media Contact:
Gelise McCullough
Director of Communications, Medicines Patent Pool
gmccullough@medicinespatentpool.org
+41 79 685 64 36