26 May 2017
The Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation and IP (GSPOA) is a key initiative to promote new thinking on innovation and access to medicines and encourage needs-driven research targeting diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries. The Medicines Patent Pool is one concrete example of successful implementation of the GSPOA where it was originally proposed as a mechanism to promote transfer and access to health-related technologies (Element 4.3 of the GSPOA). We thank Member States for having encouraged the global health community to test this new approach and Unitaid for taking the lead in establishing the MPP as the first public health patent pool, initially focusing on HIV, and now expanded to hepatitis C and tuberculosis (TB).
The MPP would also like to highlight the progress that has been made in implementing GSPOA recommendations relating to making patent information on key medicines publicly available (Element 5.1 of the GSPOA). Transparency of patent status information is critical. Last October, the MPP had the honour of launching MedsPaL, a new online platform that enables stakeholders to rapidly understand the intellectual property (IP) status of priority HIV, HCV and TB medicines in low- and middle-income countries. Today, the platform is widely used by health actors involved in medicine development, procurement and supply and includes information provided by national patent offices as well as pharmaceutical companies. Further expansion of this tool is being considered to enable user-friendly access to patent status information on essential medicines.
We welcome the ongoing review of the GSPOA, which will provide an opportunity to assess progress to date and areas where significant challenges remain. We look forward to collaborating with the Secretariat and Member States in the continued implementation of the GSPOA.
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.