21 November 2025
Based in Pune, Emcure Pharmaceuticals is an Indian multinational pharmaceutical company. Its product portfolio includes gynaecology, cardiovascular, oncology and blood therapeutic medicines, HIV antiretrovirals and other anti-infectives, and vitamins and minerals.
MPP’s patents and licences database MedsPaL is a free resource that provides information on the intellectual property status of key health technologies and products.
MPP News spoke to Dr Anshuman Ambike, Emcure’s Associate Vice President & Head-Global IP and his colleague Dr. Leenata Mandpe, who explained why MPP’s MedsPaL database is such an important tool for their work.
Dr Anshuman Ambike, Emcure’s Associate Vice President & Head-Global IP
Could you outline how long you have been using MedsPaL?
We have been using MedsPaL since 2017 and quickly learned that it compiles a wide range of products along with detailed intellectual property (IP) information. At Emcure Pharmaceuticals, we focus on antiretroviral (ARV) products and rely heavily on the MedsPaL database. Our operations span over 70 countries across emerging markets. One of the key advantages of MedsPaL is its comprehensive listing of patent geography for each product, which supports our ARV filings in many of these countries.
What are the main advantages of using MedsPaL?
Before we began using MedsPaL, we had to collect the necessary information from multiple databases. These included the Indian Patent Office website and the US-based CAS SciFinder database, managed by the American Chemical Society.
While these platforms provide general IP data, MedsPaL stands out as the only database that consolidates all relevant IP information from various agencies. Having access to comprehensive patent details in a single source has proven extremely convenient for our work.
Has MedsPaL evolved over the years from your perspective?
MedsPaL has evolved significantly since we began using it in 2017. Initially, it primarily featured information on HIV products, but it now encompasses a broader range of disease areas such as Hepatitis C and Covid-19 related medicines. This expansion is a welcome and valuable improvement.
One notable enhancement is the introduction of the new licence tab, which lists various licences associated with each product. This feature is especially helpful because it links directly to all versions of the licence documents hosted on the MPP website. For example, if a licence was signed in 2015, amended in 2016, and further updated in 2020, all three versions are accessible with a single click. Previously, we had to search for each amendment individually – a time-consuming process that is no longer necessary. This streamlined access saves us considerable time and effort.
Are there similar databases available? How does MedsPaL compare to them?
Emcure
The Indian Patent Office and SciFinder databases can list relevant patents, but their classification capabilities are limited. For example, they do not categorise patents by formulation or dosage regimen. Now, all this information is consolidated on a single platform – MedsPaL – allowing us to access comprehensive patent data with just one click. This is a major advantage, particularly because other databases typically lack coverage for countries in emerging markets.
We categorise countries based on licence agreements into territories and non-territories. For non-territories, like Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica, or the Ivory Coast, MedsPaL is especially valuable. This eliminates the need to manually search through individual databases, offering a much more efficient and comprehensive view of patent landscapes.
So would it be fair to say that MedsPaL has made quite a positive difference to your work?
The MedsPaL team has done an outstanding job by continuously enhancing the database. With the addition of more products and expanded country coverage, it has become an even more valuable resource for users like us.
MedsPaL is truly irreplaceable. No other database offers such a concise and comprehensive overview of specific products and their associated patents. We rely on MedsPaL, particularly when planning regulatory filings over a five-year horizon. It enables us to track patent expiry dates in emerging market countries and assess the broader IP landscape across regions. This helps us identify which products to prioritize based on upcoming patent expirations.
Another key feature is the legal status tracking of each patent application. MedsPaL provides insights into ongoing oppositions, as well as any pending extensions in specific countries.
An additional advantage is that MedsPaL is entirely in English. Before its introduction, we had to manually translate patent documents from the original languages used on national patent office websites – a time-consuming and error-prone process that MedsPaL has effectively eliminated.
Is there anything in MedsPaL you’d like to see changed?
We would appreciate more frequent updates to the database, particularly regarding patents pending in specific countries.
The inclusion of products beyond HIV – such as those related to tuberculosis, COVID-19, and other infectious diseases – is a highly valuable development. Expanding the scope of MedsPaL to cover these areas will greatly benefit users. Additionally, enhancing the database with more comprehensive information on vaccines would be extremely useful.
We also find the addition of patent extension data for specific countries to be a significant improvement. This kind of detailed, up-to-date information strengthens MedsPaL’s role as a critical resource for navigating the global IP landscape.
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.