Access to medicines is key to achieving universal health coverage (UHC);however, such access can be hindered byunaffordable prices. A good example ofimprovement in access to medicines istreatment for human immunodeficiencyvirus (HIV) infection. Global coveragewas very low in 2000, with only 611 000people receiving treatment; however,in 2017, 21.7 million people were ontreatment.1,2 This increase was partly dueto access to affordable, quality-assuredgeneric HIV medicines in low- andmiddle-income countries.1One way to achieve better access tonew medicines is patent pools, whichallow third parties to acquire nonexclusive licences for the intellectualproperty needed to develop products.While patent pools have existed for several decades in other fields of technology, such as in digital technologies, theyare a relatively new concept in publichealth, where they have been applied toaddress some of the access challengesin low- and middle-income countries.
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