MPP statement at the 144th session of the WHO Executive Board on 29 January 2019, item 5.7.1:

Speaker: Elena Villanueva

The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) welcomes the WHO Roadmap and the inclusion of public health-oriented licensing agreements as a way to foster access to health products.

The MPP, established by Unitaid, has become the main driver of public health-oriented licensing agreements for access to medicines in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). It has already enabled over 100 countries to get faster access to new HIV and hepatitis C treatments at affordable prices and in suitable formulations.

We note the Roadmap proposes as a deliverable support for the expansion of the MPP to other patented essential medicines through identification of potential products for licensing.  As part of this process, earlier this week, within the framework of the WHO Technical Consultation on the Essential Medicines Lists (EMLs), the MPP consulted with a number of Member States on which essential medicines could be prioritised to facilitate access. I wish to invite Board members and Member States in this room, to engage with us individually so we can prioritise together with the WHO, medicines for which you see there is the greatest need for affordable access and where the MPP licensing model can have the greatest public health impact.

In support of the Roadmap’s deliverable on transparency of patent status of health technologies MedsPaL, our Patents & Licenses database provides free patent, licensing and regulatory data exclusivity information on essential medicines in over 110 LMICs. This has been possible thanks to close collaboration with several national and regional patent offices who provide this data to us on a regular basis.

Finally, we also note that there are a number of “Key milestones” for 2019-2023. We would like to hear more on how the deliverables are linked to the milestones, and how WHO is going to monitor progress on the deliverables, in particular, those not reflected in specific milestones.