9 July 2008 | GENEVA -- UNITAID's Executive Board has approved, in principle, a proposal to establish a patent pool for medicines. At its eighth session in Geneva, 2–3 July 2008, Board members approved the initiative which aims to provide patients in low-income and middle-income countries with increased access to more appropriate and affordable medicines. The initial focus will be in the area of paediatric antiretroviral medicines (ARVs) and new combinations.

Patent pools were relatively common in the early part of the 20th century, particularly in the manufacturing of machinery and in the metallurgical, paper, electrical and chemical industries. More recently, digital communication technologies (MPEG, MP3, Dolby and DVD) have used patent pools as ways to facilitate innovation while maintaining industry integrity.

Soon after UNITAID was established, Médecins Sans Frontières requested that UNITAID explore the possibility of a patent pool for medicines. Affordability and accessibility of new and better adapted medicines is an increasing problem in low-income and middle-income countries. For example, the second-generation ARVs are very expensive and are beyond the ability of most patients to pay. A patent pool for medicines aims to improve affordability of second-generation medicines by lowering the barriers to market entry for generic drug manufacturers while maintaining royalty payments to patent holders.

UNITAID will set up a task force to design the structure for the medicines patent pool and develop the necessary instruments for its implementation. UNITAID expects to encourage voluntary contributions from patent holders and potential licensees for products to be used in low-income and middle-income countries. The task force recommendations will be discussed at the next UNITAID Executive Board meeting in November 2008 which will take a final decision on establishing the pool. If approved, the steps towards making the patent pool operational can be started in early 2009.