Geneva, 11 October 2017 — The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Otsuka to accelerate the development and manufacturing of, and access to, paediatric formulations containing delamanid for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).

Delamanid 50mg tablet was recently added to the World Health Organization’s Essential Medicines List for Children signalling its priority for health programmes globally. Otsuka is currently developing a suitable paediatric formulation of the treatment for younger children.

The MoU outlines broad areas of collaboration between the parties, including seeking funding to have a third-party manufacturer develop appropriate paediatric formulations, and engaging in necessary licensing activities to move this forward. Importantly, it also envisions the parties seeking out future areas of cooperation in the field of MDR-TB treatment to address broader unmet patient needs.

The MPP, originally focused on HIV treatment access, expanded its mandate in late 2015 to include tuberculosis and hepatitis C medicines. The collaboration with Otsuka follows the MPP’s licence with Johns Hopkins University for promising TB compound sutezolid and sublicensing agreement with TB Alliance to develop the compound for tuberculosis patients.

Access the press release in Spanish

About the Medicines Patent Pool

The Medicines Patent Pool is a United Nations-backed public health organisation working to increase access to HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis treatments in low- and middle-income countries. Through its innovative business model, the MPP partners with industry, civil society, international organisations, patient groups and other stakeholders to prioritise, forecast and license needed medicines and pool intellectual property to encourage generic manufacture and the development of new formulations. To date, the MPP has signed agreements with nine patent holders for thirteen HIV antiretrovirals, one HIV technology platform, two hepatitis C direct-acting antivirals and a tuberculosis treatment. The MPP was founded and is funded by Unitaid.