An article published on October 14 in UNAIDS Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids announced that Aurobindo Parma and MedChem have become the first producers of generic antiretroviral medicines to join the Medicines Patent Pool.

The move enables the two manufacturers to take advantage of the agreement signed between Gilead Sciences and the Medicines Patent Pool in July 2011, which makes Gilead’s intellectual property on four antiretroviral medicines available to the Patent Pool for licensing to generic manufacturers.

Established in 2010 with the support of UNITAID, the Medicines Patent Pool aims to increase access to newer antiretroviral medicines by creating a pool of patents and intelligence on antiretroviral production donated by pharmaceutical producers.

The Pool is currently in negotiations with several other patent holders and producers.

Aurobindo is already one of the main producers of generic antiretroviral medicines. Before the agreement, Aurobindo manufactured tenofovir under a separate voluntary license issued directly by Gilead Sciences. The license carried restrictions to distribute to several countries and Aurobindo was able to end its earlier agreement with Gilead through a key provision in the Medicine Patent Pool’s licenses.

Under the new agreement, Aurobindo is permitted to produce tenofovir independently and to directly distribute the drug to more countries than under its previous restrictions, which should contribute in making tenofovir more widely available at a lower cost. Tenofovir is off patent in India.

The new agreement has enabled both pharmaceutical companies to sign up for the production of emtricitabine, cobistat and elvitegravir and the combination pill called the ‘Quad’, which contains elvitegravir, emtricitabine, cobistat, and tenofovir.

Generics manufacturer MedChem has also decided on producing tenofovir.

Paul De Lay, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Programme said:

“We congratulate the Medicines Patent Pool for completing this agreement with Aurobindo and Medchem. UNAIDS strongly encourages other antiretroviral patent holders to establish agreements with the Pool, and for generic manufacturers to utilize the licenses that the Pool can facilitate to expand access to antiretroviral treatment.”

At the present time, approximately 6.6 million people worldwide receive antiretroviral treatment in low- and middle-income countries with another 9 million people without access despite being eligible for treatment.

Written by Petra Rattue