India Has Been Making Significant Progress On Expanding Access To Treatment

Charles Gore, Executive Director, Medicines Patent Pool, talks about the organisation’s supporting access in low- and middle-income countries and its ability to deliver quality and affordable medicines, in an interaction with

- Viveka Roychowdhury

You joined Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) as Executive Director in July 2018. As a recovered hepatitis C patient, how do you view the role of organisations like MPP in public health?

I originally got involved, in the UK in the 1990s, in hepatitis C advocacy because I had such difficulty in finding reliable information and appropriate support for myself and I didn’t want anyone else to have to go through the same struggle. Quite soon the advocacy became more about access to treatment as new medications became available and I became a passionate believer in the need to ensure access for everyone in need, whether they are marginalised people in developed countries or simply living in developing ones. Because, I was aware of what the MPP had achieved in HIV, when the organisation wanted to consult with the affected community and other civil society partners on whether to expand into hepatitis C, I was delighted to be able to facilitate that at the World Hepatitis Summit in 2015. That expansion has been absolutely critical in driving down the price of hepatitis C treatment. It is just an example of the central role that the MPP has in supporting access in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The MPP is not the whole answer to access by itself – access is far too multifaceted and there are many other organisations with equally critical roles – but its ability to deliver quality, affordable medicines is a very important component of the answer. And the partnership approach with industry (both originator and generics) has proven to be a highly effective way to accelerate access to treatment.

What difference will you bring to the implementation of MPP’s 2018-2022 strategy which is being expanded beyond HIV, Hep C and TB?