ViiV Healthcare and MPP sign new voluntary licensing on HIV PrEP drug

ViiV Healthcare, the global specialist HIV company majority owned by GSK (LSE: GSK), and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) today announced the signing of a new voluntary licensing agreement for patents relating to cabotegravir long-acting (LA) for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to help enable access in least developed, low-income, lower middle-income and Sub-Saharan African countries.

Thro ugh this agreement, selected generic manufacturers will have the opportunity to develop, manufacture and supply generic versions of cabotegravir LA for PrEP, the first long-acting HIV prevention medicine, in 90 countries, subject to required regulatory approvals being obtained. It is expected that this agreement will help to enable at-scale access to generic cabotegravir LA for PrEP. This announcement comes just seven months after the first regulatory approval of cabotegravir LA for PrEP in the world, by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The new voluntary licence announced today builds on a long-standing partnership between ViiV Healthcare and MPP, which has been highly successful in facilitating the manufacture and sale of generic versions of oral ViiV Healthcare medicines in countries most affected by HIV and least able to pay for treatment and care, the company explained. In particular, voluntary licensing has enabled access to generic products containing another of ViiV Healthcare’s innovative medicines, dolutegravir, for at least 20 million people living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries, as of December 2021.