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ViiV Healthcare, the global specialist HIV company majority owned by GSK, with Pfizer and Shionogi as shareholders, together with the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), have announced a major milestone in their partnership. Ten years after the signing of ground-breaking licensing agreements between ViiV Healthcare and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), as well as the direct agreements with Aurobindo Pharma and ViiV Healthcare, more than 1 billion packs of generic dolutegravir (DTG)- based medicines have reached 24 million people living with HIV in 128 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), transforming the HIV landscape in those areas of the world. This means that as of 2023, over 90% of people on antiretroviral treatment in these countries are estimated to be on DTG-based regimens.
Thanks to this decade-long partnership, WHO-recommended treatment can be developed, produced, and when approved, supplied by 15 generic manufacturers to all low-income, least developed, lower-middle-income and sub-Saharan African countries, as well as some upper middle-income countries, addressing the needs of regions with the highest HIV burdens.
Charles Gore, Executive Director, Medicines Patent Pool said: "As we reflect on a decade of collaboration with ViiV Healthcare, we are proud to see that public health-oriented voluntary licensing has had tangible impact in the lives of the people we serve, enabling access to affordable versions of innovative HIV treatments in LMICs. We commend ViiV Healthcare for their huge commitment, allowing our partnership to demonstrate that voluntary licensing can serve as a sustainable strategy to enhance affordable production and distribution for more equitable access to essential medicines in underserved territories.”
Deborah Waterhouse, CEO, ViiV Healthcare said: "The scale and impact of our 10-year collaboration with the Medicines Patent Pool and with Aurobindo Pharma are testament to the power of partnership in advancing global health. We are proud to have played a pivotal role in enabling 24 million people living with HIV access affordable dolutegravir-based treatments, and we look forward to our continued collaboration with MPP and generic partners as we broaden the focus to include innovative preventative HIV medicines."
As well as enabling widespread access to TLD (a WHO-preferred treatment for adults and adolescents), this 10-year partnership played a foundational role in the development and availability of age-appropriate DTG-based treatment options for children and infants, addressing a key gap as children are disproportionately affected by HIV – with paediatric treatment coverage still lagging behind adults. As a result of MPP and ViiV’s licensing agreement, as well as a novel public-private partnership between ViiV, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and Unitaid providing technology transfer and regulatory support, generic dispersible tablet formulations of DTG have now been supplied to 95 LMICs for children weighing at least 3kg.
Most recently, in 2023, three generic dispersible formulations of paediatric ALD (abacavir, lamivudine, dolutegravir – ABC/3TC/DTG) received approval for infants from three months of age and weighing at least 6kg. This was further to an additional partnership programme which ViiV and CHAI drove with generic partners, in parallel with ViiV’s own paediatric development programme for ABC/3TC/DTG (the first dispersible single-tablet regimen containing dolutegravir). Introduction of this newer combination in LMICs will further support delivery of HIV medication to young children and address unmet needs by offering a reduced pill burden.