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26 June 2020Big PharmaRory O'Neill

LSPN Connect: MPP chief wants COVID-19 role

The executive director of the  Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) says it should have a role in fighting COVID-19, but it’s up to stakeholders to agree what that will be.

Speaking exclusively at the launch of the  LSPN Connect platform yesterday, June 25, Charles Gore said that MPP was in discussions with “many people about what they want us to do [on COVID-19], and it isn’t exactly clear yet”.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), and governments such as Costa Rica’s, have endorsed the voluntary licensing of patents as a way of ensuring equitable access to medicines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But with several voluntary licensing mechanisms having been established, it is not yet clear where resources will be concentrated.

“There are a lot of people with different views and that has made it a little bit difficult for us,” Gore admitted.

He emphasised MPP’s experience in patent pooling and negotiating bespoke licensing agreements for generic drugs. MPP has focused primarily on diseases such as hepatitis C and HIV, although Gore said this work had been “slowed” by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There is agreement that there is no point setting up a brand new IP pool—we are there and we have ten years experience doing this,” Gore said.

But despite this, there are still “different views as to what exactly our role should be,” Gore said. MPP is an implementing partner in the  WHO and Costa Rica’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), although Gore said its role within C-TAP had not yet been clearly defined.

C-TAP is a sister initiative to the ACT Accelerator, which received the endorsement of the United Nations (UN), the WHO’s parent body.

These initiatives were accompanied by the  WHO’s Solidarity Call to Action, which encouraged patent owners to volunteer their resources, including their IP.

Gore said that MPP has had to shake off the misconception that its model was based on a kind of “IP grab”.

“Industry has come to see that we are a very useful option,” Gore said, commenting on how patent pooling could ease distribution challenges for Big Pharma in lower and middle-income countries.

Not only does the MPP model improve access, it can also improve the quality and safety of drugs entering lower income countries, Gore argued.

“Our licences have tended to allow sale to countries where there are no patents,” he said, whereas some ordinary bilateral licences between drugmakers “prevent generic companies from doing that”.

But if drug companies own patents in the primary pharmaceutical manufacturing countries, and not lower income regions, this can pose a “real problem” in terms of drug safety, Gore argued.

“It allows manufacturers to come into lower income countries with really substandard drugs,” he said.

Gore also referenced the “reputational impact” of collaborating with MPP. “I don’t think this should just be part of companies’ corporate social responsibility,” Gore said.

According to the MPP chief, voluntarily licensing patents in order to improve access can help companies attract and retain the best staff.

Gore believes the MPP model could be valuable in ensuring equitable access to any potentially game-changing drugs in the fight against COVID-19.

“Our model is an option, we do not think we are the answer to everything,” he said.

LSPN Connect is the Membership Programme for the Life Sciences - for more information, and to join, please visit www.lspnconnect.com

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