Medicines Patent Pool Has Another Big Pharma Deal

For the past two years, the Medicines Patent Pool has largely met with indifference from the pharmaceutical industry. Only one drugmaker, Gilead Sciences, agreed to license any of its medicines to the non-profit initiative, which was created by UNITAID to streamline licensing so that generic versions of patented HIV meds could be offered at lower prices in poor countries. Now, though, after extensive lobbying and negotiations another drugmaker has signed on. ViiV Healthcare, which is a joint venture between GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Pfizer, has agreed to license abacavir, also known as Ziagen,for children. MPP and ViiV have also agreed to negotiate licensing rights for other drugs in the ViiV pipeline, notably dolutegravir, for which the joint venture is currently seeking regulatory approval in the US and Europe. The agreement is significant because it marks the second time that a large drugmaker has agreed to work with MPP, which was rebuffed by Johnson & Johnson last year when the healthcare giant agreed not to enforce patent rights for its Prezista HIV drug. As part of its go-our-own-way plan, J&J (JNJ) is licensing the medicine to generic drugmakers for distribution in 64 poor countries (read more here). And unlike the agreement with Gilead Sciences, this latest deal is being met with a level of acceptance. MPP was chastised for the Gilead deal because it limits the amount of competition by restricting manufacturing to one country, which is India; there are narr...
Source: Pharmalot - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Abacavir AIDS Dolutegravir Gilead Sciences GlaxoSmithKline HIV Pfizer Unitaid Viiv Healthcare Ziagen Source Type: blogs