On April 1, 2014, ViiV, a consortium of Pfizer and GSK, and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), announced two new licensing agreements that expand generic competition for dolutegravir (DTG), and integrase inhibitor used for the treatment of adult and pediatric HIV infection. (MPP press release here.) Dolutegravir is a new drug, approved for marketing by the US FDA on August 12, 2013. According to the MPP, the agreements will allow generic manufacturers to produce for countries where 93 percent of adults and 99 percent of children living with HIV in the developing world reside.
This announcement is good news for persons living with HIV. If anyone had asked me a few years ago, which group of companies would be more likely to license patents to the MPP, (a) Pfizer and GSK, or (b) Johnson and Johnson and Merck, I would have predicted (b), and been wrong.
The terms of the new licenses expand access and improve global norms for voluntary licenses. The fact that one can not only read about the license, but download the full text of the 61 page agreement is an important benefit.
Johnson and Johnson and Merck should change course and negotiate licenses with the MPP.
Merck and CIPLA should also publish the terms of its agreement with CIPLA, which Bloomberg has described as a strategy to “help the U.S. drug maker protect its patent as the Asian nation seeks cheaper generics,” and to avoid a compulsory license [1].
[1] Ketaki Gokhale, Merck HIV Drug Strategy Seen Shielding Patent, Bloomberg, March 20, 2014. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-19/merck-hiv-drug-strategy-seen-shielding-patent-corporate-india.html