UNITAID Decision to Fund ‘Patent Pool’ to Boost Access to New Medicines

摘要

On 15 December 2009, UNITAID, an international health financing agency, agreed to fund a licensing agency that will be able toadminister a patent pool?for AIDS medicines.This will offer licenses to generic manufacturers, and has the potential to reduce prices and facilitate the combination of drugs from differentmakers?into fixed-dose combinations. This first step with mean that formal negotiations with drug companies can hopefully now begin.