Last week, at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), a broad range of world leaders and Member States expressed support to the Political Declaration on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases and the Promotion of Mental Health and Well-being.
A key focus of the Declaration is ensuring equitable, sustainable, and affordable access to quality-assured medicines. It sets an ambitious target: by 2030, at least 80% of primary health care facilities in all countries should have access to WHO-recommended essential medicines and basic technologies for NCDs and mental health conditions, at affordable prices. To achieve this, the Declaration emphasizes strategies such as technology transfer, pooled procurement, voluntary licensing, while also prioritizing sustainable financing.
Building on this momentum, the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), Access to Medicine Foundation (ATMF), NCD Alliance (NCDA), and the NCD Policy Lab convened a high-level roundtable to explore strategies for improving access to treatments for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health conditions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
The roundtable brought together experts from global health agencies, pharmaceutical companies, governments, regional health authorities, and civil society to discuss practical mechanisms for implementing equitable access to medicines. Discussions centered on voluntary licensing, local and regional manufacturing, technology transfer, affordability mechanisms, and innovative procurement and financing models. A strong emphasis was placed on scaling innovative practices to ensure they reach patients more quickly and more equitably.
Participants agreed that building a community of practice among stakeholders will be essential to translating commitments into tangible outcomes. The roundtable emphasized the importance of coordinating efforts across public and private sectors, leveraging voluntary licensing, technology transfer, local manufacturing, and innovative financing and procurement initiatives to ensure equity, affordability, and availability of NCD treatments in LMICs.
The meeting underscored that, even as the UN Political Declaration awaits formal adoption, collaboration at the operational level is critical to ensure no one is left behind in the global fight against NCDs.
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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.