[5] The United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool Foundation was established as an independent legal public health entity in July 2010 with the support of Unitaid and has been fully operational since November 2010.
[6][7] The MPP was established in response to the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, which reached a crisis in LMIC countries that were unable to access essential patented medicines.
[9] The MSF proposal was for an entity that would be dependent on patent holders—"particularly private pharmaceutical companies"—voluntarily agreeing to allow LMIC countries access to their licensed essential medicines.
[citation needed] In October 2012, the MPP, Gilead Sciences and the UN National Institutes of Health/University of Illinois were honoured by the Licensing Executives Society (United States and Canada) (LES) for licence agreements that expand access to affordable HIV medicines in developing countries.
[13] By 2013, MPP in collaboration with ViiV Healthcare granted 14 voluntary licences generics companies for low-cost versions of abacavir used to treat children living with HIV.
[6] As of 2018, the Medicines Patent Pool holds licences for 13 HIV antiretrovirals, an HIV technology platform, 2 hepatitis C direct-acting antivirals and 1 investigational treatment for tuberculosis from patent holders AbbVie,[14] Bristol-Myers Squibb,[15] Gilead Sciences,[16][17] MSD,[18] ViiV Healthcare,[19][20] Johns Hopkins University,[21] the University of Liverpool, the US National Institutes of Health[22] and Pharco Pharmaceuticals.
[23] The MPP also worked with Janssen[24] and Boehringer Ingelheim[25] to extend their non-assert policies for paediatric darunavir formulations and nevirapine, ensuring that the companies will not assert their patent rights in many more developing countries.