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Medicines Patent Pool


The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) is a United Nations-backed organisation founded in July 2010 and based in Geneva, Switzerland. The MPP offers a public health-driven business model that aims to lower the prices of HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis C medicines and facilitate the development of better-adapted HIV treatment through voluntary licensing and patent pooling.

The MPP was founded and remains fully funded by UNITAID, a financing mechanism that targets HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in developing countries. In its first grant phase 2010-2015, the MPP worked exclusively in the HIV field and in December 2014, UNITAID approved another funding package for MPP to continue its HIV work through 2020. In November 2015, the Executive Board at UNITAID approved the expansion of MPP's mandate to hepatitis C and tuberculosis treatment. The MPP was the first and is now the only independent patent pool that aims to tackle the issue of access to HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and tuberculosis drugs in low- and middle-income countries.

To date the MPP has signed agreements with AbbVie,Bristol-Myers Squibb,Gilead Sciences,MSD,F. Hoffmann-La Roche the US National Institutes of Health,ViiV Healthcare, for twelve HIV medicines and with Bristol-Myers Squibb for a hepatitis C medicine. Fourteen generic manufacturers have now licensed from the MPP and are actively distributing generic medicines in developing countries or pursuing development plans for future introduction.

In October 2012, the MPP, Gilead Sciences and the UN National Institutes of Health/University of Illinois were honoured by the Licensing Executives Society (United States and Canada) (LES) for licence agreements that expand access to affordable HIV medicines in developing countries. The LES’s annual "Deals of Distinction" Awards are presented to notable intellectual property agreements in five industry sectors and the three parties were recognised for precedence-setting licensing agreements dedicated to improving public health under the Industry-University-Government Interface category.


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