When a pharmaceutical company first develops a novel drug or therapeutic, it is protected by a patent. While this ensures that the company can profit off of their creation, it also creates a monopoly as the sole patent holder can charge higher prices without worrying about competition.  But this is being changed by the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), a UK-based organization that has signed agreements with 22 patent holders so far to distribute the much cheaper, generic version of life-saving products for low and middle income countries.  Join us and Charles Gore, the Executive Director of MPP, in a discussion about the importance of manufacturing capacity for drug distribution, the need to advocate for federal funding in healthcare, and other unexpected regulatory challenges through this line of work.
Prior to his current role at MPP, Charles Gore brought 2 decades of work in advocating for hepatitis C patients through his role as president of The World Hepatitis Alliance, cofounder and chief executive of The Hepatitis C Trust, and the inaugural president of the European Liver Patients Association. He is also a member of the 2024 TIME100 Health list.
Check out MPP: medicinespatentpool.org/