Medicines Patent Pool Expands To Include Hepatitis C, Tuberculosis

The Medicines Patent Pool has announced the expansion of its mandate to cover hepatitis C and tuberculosis treatment. The MPP was previously concentrating only on HIV medicines.

The Medicines Patent Pool works to lower drug prices through voluntary licensing and patent pooling.

According to the MPP press release, the UNITAID (which created the MPP in 2010) Executive Board meeting approved the MPP’s “proposal to improve access to both life-saving direct acting antivirals (DAAs) to treat hepatitis C and new and re-purposed medicines for tuberculosis.”

Building on its current HIV model, the MPP said it will seek to licence new hepatitis C medicines for generic manufacture. New generations of hepatitis medicines are extremely costly, placing them out of reach of poor populations and is even creating issues for government procurement in developed countries.

To date, according to the press release, the MPP has signed agreements for 12 antiretrovirals.

The MPP also will work to ensure access to new treatments for multi-resistant and drug-susceptible tuberculosis, said the release. Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death for people living with HIV, according to the MPP.

The MPP also said in the release that new numbers published last week “confirm that the MPP has saved the international community $119.6 million from the procurement of low-cost HIV medicines, and its generic partners have distributed 7.26 million patient-years of treatments.”