Gilead Sciences, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, becomes the first pharmaceutical company to sign an agreement with Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), one year after the MPP's formation,. The agreement with Gilead Sciences, will allow for the sharing of the intellectual property (IP) of HIV medicines including tenofovir, emtricitabine, cobicistat, and elvitegravir. The Global Network for People living with HIV (GNP+) believes that this step, while in some part should be welcomed, cannot be completely lauded due to the significant numbers of people living with HIV that will remain unable to access much-needed medicines.

As part of the agreement, Gilead has agreed to new licensing terms with four India-based medication manufacturers, which include the sharing of IP for three drugs currently in late-stage clinical development.  The generic drugs produced under this agreement will be available at a lower cost to 95 developing countries, including India, with Viread and Truvada being sold in 16 additional countries

While this new agreement will somewhat increase access to HIV medicines, GNP+ is concerned that large populations of people living with HIV will not benefit from this development.

Despite many commitments aimed at achieving Universal Access, an estimated 9 million people still lack access to antiretroviral therapy. UN member states recently committed to ensuring that 15 million people receive treatment by 2015[1].  However, without the political will to address the structural barriers that restrict access to treatment and other services, especially for people in low and middle income countries, it is likely that this target, like others before it, will be missed.

One of the main obstacles to access is the patent protection for HIV treatment.  Both voluntary and compulsory licensing, which should allow for the legal circumvention of patent protections, have not been fully exploited  due to  influence of  the big  pharmaceutical companies and governments.   The MPP was created with the promise that it could bypass some of these barriers.

On 18 July, the MPP announced that it had begun negotiations with Boehringer-Ingelheim and Bristol-Myers Squibb for patents on HIV medicines.

However, before expanding to new agreements, and in order to make headway on Universal Access, GNP+ would urge MPP and its partners to take into account the following considerations:

• To review the threshold for countries having access to the MPP  so that it includes all low and middle income countries that cannot afford to purchase these drugs on the open market;

• To ensure that the MPP meaningfully engages civil society, in particular people living with HIV, in all aspects of its work so that HIV treatment needs are an important consideration in all negotiations;

• To ensure that its structures are transparent, and agreements can be scrutinised by interested stakeholders.

Far too many people are denied access to treatments that are readily available to others in high income countries.  GNP+ urges the MPP to heed the concerns above and work towards living up to the promise that its creation inspired.  Let this agreement be a real step towards Universal Access.