The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) is a not-for-profit organisation founded in 2010 with the support of the United Nations. Its mission is to improve access to essential medicines in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). It negotiates voluntary licences with patent holders – typically, pharmaceutical companies – before granting non-exclusive and geographically limited sublicences to manufacturers in targeted countries, where the originator companies, i.e; those that bring new medicinal products to the market are typically not active. This results in low or no royalty payments by sublicencees to patent holders, together with competition among multiple sublicencees in the targeted geographic markets, which helps reduce the price of medicines.

Over the 2020-2025 period, 44 products were in-licensed from 22 originator companies, and 62.14 billion doses of treatment were supplied through the MPP sublicences. For example, 286 million packs of 30 TLD tablets (the most widely used HIV regimen in the world) were supplied in 108 countries, including South Africa (93.7m), India (30.2m) and Nigeria (21.1m).

While this access model initially applied to small-molecule medicines (chemically synthesised compounds), in 2023 the MPP announced its intention to use its expertise to accelerate access to biotherapeutics (larger molecules derived from living organisms) and support the development of mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) vaccine manufacturing in low- and middle-income countries.

From small molecules to more complex technologies

Cancer, among other diseases, is a priority of the MPP, as by 2030 approximately three quarters of all deaths caused by........

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