Medicines Patent Pool’s work on HIV, Hep C and Tb in India.

Case 1: India has the third-largest HIV infected population in the world, this means roughly
2.1 million people are living with HIV in India.
90% of them are on Indian generic retroviral medication. This was possible with MPP’s
effort in ensuring that the medicines reach patients as soon as they are developed and at an
affordable price. What was supposed to be 1000 dollars per day is now available at 60 pence
per day.

Case 2: Somewhere between 6-12 million people are infected with the Hepatitis C virus in
our country. Though curable, the prices of medicine were the biggest concern in this case. A
six-month-long treatment was not affordable to a middle-income family, forget the lower and
economically compromised population.
Here comes MPP’s role of improving access to affordable medicines for those in need
especially in low- and middle-income countries like India. Hep C medicines are now
available for free at pharmacies upon showing a doctor’s prescription.

Case 3: Tuberculosis is a global pandemic which is slowly progressing towards a worse stage
due to growing resistance towards drugs. MPP facilitates development of new regimens by
licensing Tb drugs that under development phase. This licensing facilitates clinical
development to enable availability of new regimens for the affected population.