At ViiV Healthcare we have a unique approach to voluntary licensing. Voluntary Licences are granted by patent holders, such as ViiV Healthcare, to allow generics companies to manufacture and sell versions of the patent holder’s products. ViiV Healthcare does this without charging the generic manufacturers any royalties.
Although not a universal solution, voluntary licences can have an important role to play in efforts to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa by helping to increase the availability of medicines and contribute to better security of supply.
We discuss all voluntary licence applications on a case-by-case basis. We need to be sure that the manufacturer can provide a long-term supply of good-quality medicines and will implement safeguards to prevent inappropriate diversion of medicines to unintended markets.
From July 2010, ViiV Healthcare has made a commitment to make ALL of it’s portfolio available, royalty free, to generic manufacturers wherever they are based, if they are producing and distributing therapies to people living with HIV in the Least Developed Countries, Low Income Countries and all of sub-Saharan Africa – these countries represent 80% of all people currently living with HIV.
And we have gone further. ViiV Healthcare will also make all patents available to generic manufacturers in these countries for all future pipeline developments.
What do these licensing agreements mean in practice? ViiV Healthcare has now granted 11 voluntary licences for its ARVs. ViiV Healthcare and it’s licensees supplied 594 million tablets of Epivir and Combivir. This represents nearly 35 per cent growth over 2009 and ViiV Healthcare welcomes this trend as it gives customers in sub-Saharan Africa greater choice, improves affordability and contributes to better security of supply.