New Medicines Patent Pool-Gilead Agreement For New HIV Drug In 112 Countries

The Medicines Patent Pool today announced a new licensing agreement with Gilead Sciences for a new treatment still undergoing clinical trials. This agreement is expected to allow Chinese and Indian generic manufacturers to provide low-cost versions of the drug in 112 low-and middle-income countries.

The licensing agreement [pdf], revealed on the side of the 20^th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia, concerns tenofovir alafenamide (TAF), described in the MPP press release as “a promising new medicine.”

“The Gilead-MPP agreement aims to fast-track the production of low-cost versions of TAF for low- and middle-income countries soon after its approval in the United States,” Greg Perry, executive director of the Medicines Patent Pool, said in the release.

“This continues MPP’s novel approach of licensing promising new medicines in advanced stages of development or soon after registration to speed delivery to countries most affected by the HIV epidemic,” he said.

According to the release, TAF could be delivered in a smaller milligram dose than one of its predecessors, tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF). This smaller dose could lower production costs and lead to “greater ease in developing new fixed-dose combinations and single tablet regimens.”

The MPP-Gilead agreement is not their first. According to the release, “The 2011 MPP-Gilead agreement already has demonstrated impact for communities living with HIV. The price of TDF has dropped 45%-87% in the past two years and MPP’s generic partners have distributed three million TDF treatments in the same time period.”

The licensing agreement includes a list of 112 countries “in the TDF-TAF territory”. A number of middle-income countries are not included, such as Algeria, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Jordan, Malaysia, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

The announcement is the MPP’s second in the past week, having earlier announced seven new sub-licences with generics producers (IPW, Public Health, 18 July 2014).