1 June 2015
The MPP published a Progress and Achievements Report today outlining key activities and milestones of its first five years. Founded by UNITAID in July 2010 the organisation has made significant progress, signing voluntary licences on12 priority antiretrovirals (ARVs) with six patent holders. Its generic partners have supplied more than six million patient-years of WHO-recommended ARVs in 117 countries, including 41 countries that were previously unable to benefit from generic competition for such medicines.
The organisation’s licences have saved the international community USD 79 million through lower prices of ARVs, equivalent to one-year of treatment for 625,000 people. In the coming years, it is expected to generate total savings of between USD 1.18 and 1.4 billion. New fixed-dose combinations and paediatric formulations that will enable more people living with HIV to access improved formulations with better safety and efficacy profiles or more convenient dosing schedules are also under development.
To read about all of the MPP’s main achievements click here.
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.