Medicines Patent Pool deal to make cancer drug cheaper

Subject : Science and technology

Section: Health

Concept:

The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) has signed sub-licence agreements with the India-based companies Eugia, Hetero and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, along with the Indonesian firm BrightGene, to make generic versions of the drug Nilotinib of the Switzerland-based pharmaceutical corporation Novartis.
The drug Nilotinib is used for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukaemia, which is a type of blood cancer and the move is expected to make certain cancer drugs more accessible and cheaper for patients.
Nilotinib is sold under the brand name Tasigna and marketed worldwide by Novartis.
According to the recent announcement, the selected manufacturers can make generic versions of Nilotinib in India and seven middle-income countries and can also supply it in 44 territories included in the licence through a non-exclusive licence agreement, subject to local regulatory authorisation.

Medicines Patent Pool

The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) is a United Nation-backed international organisation founded in July 2010, based in Geneva, Switzerland.
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.
Its public health driven business model aims to lower the prices of HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis C medicines and facilitate the development of better-adapted HIV treatments through voluntary licensing and patent pooling.
Its goal is to improve access to affordable and appropriate HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis medicines in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).
Economics research finds evidence that the pool increases generic diffusion in LMIC and upstream innovation.