Intellectual property (IP) or patent rights provide incentives that help promote the discovery and development of new medicines for patients and fosters a competitive market for medical products. A patent protects the private sector against infringement by preventing others from producing, selling, or using the patented item for a specific time. Almost all medical products are patent protected before falling into the public domain, where they could become generics (e.g., drugs) or of public knowledge and reproducible when the patent expires (e.g., technologies); this is often the case for most life-saving and essential medicines.
Besides protecting patent holders, patents create monopolies which became highly potent in the last century, especially in the medical products sector, where holders fix prices and decide if they enter a market based on business reasons only. Hence, by creating medical product monopolies, patents indirectly trigger to act as barriers to equitable access to medical products and technologies in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) because they limit their availability and affordability.
The sharing and disclosure of IP content enable the dissemination of information, increase the public stock of knowledge, and play a critical role in equitable access to medical products and technologies. IP holders – mostly private companies – could share this knowledge voluntarily. This is because generics can be manufactured locally in a quality-assured and safe manner, creating a competitive environment and, consequently, affordable prices. The recent COVID-19 outbreak, particularly the failure to provide equitable access to vaccines, accentuated international concerns about finding a new way to handle IP.
Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) is the first and only voluntary licensing (VL) and patent pooling mechanism in the public health area. It pursues an innovative, voluntary approach to improve access to essential, patented medicines that build on collaboration with IP holders. MPP negotiates IP licensing agreements (in-licensing) with IP holders to allow (sub-license/out-licensing) the generic manufacture and supply of medical products in LMICs. The MPP model is based on collaborative contracts and ensures that new treatments are more widely available several years before patent expiry at an affordable price. In addition, licenses enable LMICs-focused innovation, such as developing new fixed-dose combinations and adapted formulations for children.
Since its inception in 2010, MPP has seen significant successes that have shaped access through VL and helped define its new strategy. Having signed 34 licenses for various health technologies and facilitated access to 30 billion doses of treatments since 2010, MPP seeks to leverage its unique expertise in negotiating and implementing licensing and technology transfer agreements from a public health perspective to drive access to innovative health technologies that can improve the quality of life of people living in LMICs and reduce avoidable morbidity and mortality.
MPP Strategy 2023-2025
On January 30, in parallel with the WHO Executive Board, The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) announced its new strategy for 2023-2025 to reduce access inequities by improving the availability and affordability of health products in LMICs, to facilitate the development of needed formulations for the most vulnerable, and to support the development of diversified and sustainable manufacturing capacity in LMICs.
Through its new strategy, MPP will consolidate recent expansions in areas like non-communicable diseases (NCDs), maternal health, mRNA vaccines, and biologics, proving that its model can be adapted to new disease areas and more complex technologies. The organization will also seek to learn from its current activities to strengthen its positioning in the global health architecture, enhance its impact, and plan for its next strategy.
MPP’s strategy for 2023-2025 lays out its plans to establish 10 new licenses, develop 5 new products, and support 10 technology transfers. By 2025, 30 million people will be accessing MPP-licensed products each year.
Switzerland encourages VL as a practical and non-controversial mechanism for improving access to health technologies. Since 2019, SDC has partnered with MPP to promote voluntary, collaborative solutions with the pharmaceutical industry for treatment areas where life-saving medical products exist - i.e., NCDs, COVID-19, and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) - the MPP model results in lower medicines prices while ensuring the quality of drugs and protection of IP rights.
The launch of the new MPP’s strategy took place at the Intercontinental in Geneva, where about 100 participants were conveyed, and more than 400 joined online. The SDC, with Erika Placella, Head of the Health Section, was invited to address the closing remarks after a round of presentations by outstanding panelists and where the new strategy was discussed. Erika underlined how the strategy aligns with Swiss priorities by welcoming MPP’s increased focus on access to essential medicines for NCDs and facilitating access to long-acting products, mRNA vaccines, and technology transfer. Moreover, Erika expressed that the ambitious strategy shows the agility of the MPP business and operating model to respond to new challenges and contexts (e.g., the COVID-19 outbreak), but at the same time, MPP is keeping the focus on its core mandate.
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