Patent Pools : Facilitating Access To Medicines Amidst Global Pandemic

With countless lives lost across the globe and huge economic and social repercussions, Covid-19 Pandemic has forced the world to prioritise cooperation and collaboration among pharmaceuticals towards better availability of drugs beyond borders.
In such a dire situation Patent Pools have come to the rescue. Patent Pools whereby Patent owners come together and share their technology among members and also grant license to non-members, is an emerging trend, especially in cases where Patents are complementary in nature and license to produce the product/process becomes necessary.

Concerns against Patent Pools are emerging too with accusations of potential anti-competitive effect. Yet in the current pandemic situation the welfare implications of Patent Pooling cannot be undermined.
Medicine Patent Pool, created by Unitaid, a global health agency, has been facilitating access to medicine in low and middle-income countries and is also an implementing partner of WHO’s Covid-19 technology access pool. The working mechanism of Patent Pool essentially is centered around members in the pool entering into multiparty agreement availing licenses to use the know-how of shared invention or in many cases such Patent Pools also license the entire bundle of Patents to non members for high royalty figures. Such licensing to third parties can also be at bilateral level with one of the members of the pool.

During the current pandemic situation the actual challenge has been low royalty based licences or wilful donation of Patents and collaborations to exchange information by Pharmaceuticals. Medicine Patent Pool aided by the international pressure on Pharmaceuticals by Governments and NGOs, aiming to addresss the disastrous situation and larger public interest has played a vital role in successful creation of a Patent Pool for Covid-19 treatments.
The pool has indeed helped India with availing licenses from Patent holders for faster, effective manufacture of Covid-19 treating drugs as witnessed in the recent license being granted to Natco Pharma Limited which entered into a non exclusive agreement with the Medicine Patent Pool to manufacture and sell Molnupiravir , a drug used in treatment of Covid 19.
Another similar example is of Pfizer sharing its Covid19 oral antiviral Paxlovid (containing nirmatrelvir with ritonavir). In response many companies across globe have signed to produce it’s generic version and as per news reports 19 Indian Pharmaceuticals have already been granted license by Medicine Patent Pool to produce the generic version of Paxlovid.

Besides the effective collaborations to meet challenges of current global pandemic, Patent Pools are indeed vital tool at facilitating access to technology and providing for sustainable solutions addrressing various barriers faced in availing Patent licenses and India too should in future look towards implementing such collaborative licensing model whereby research and development cost can be largely reduced helping in innovations particularly in Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical industy.