A number of Indian companies have welcomed and extended support to the move by the UNITAID to set up a 'HIV Medicines Patent Pool' designed to make affordably priced HIV medicines more available in the developing world and that could throw open bigger scope for generic industry, especially the SME sector, in the country.

With Indian generic producers being key players in the scheme of things, UNITAID, in conjunction with the WHO Regional Office for South East Asia, has held an informal technical consultation with lots of Indian companies here on June 23, sources said. Leading manufacturers from India, as well as Thailand and Bangladesh attended the meeting.

The idea is to get patent holders to license their intellectual property rights into a common 'patent pool', which will facilitate generic companies' ability to obtain the necessary licences to produce affordable versions of patented medicines. It is envisioned that an independent licensing agency will manage the licences, negotiate and handle royalties, thus simplifying a process that usually requires complex negotiations with multiple patent holders, and sometimes, litigation over patent rights, before cheaper medicines become available. Without having to wait for patents to expire, which generally last for 20 years, producers will be able to make generic versions under predetermined licensing conditions.

In July 2008, the UNITAID, which was established to support the existing efforts to achieve the United Nations millennium development goals, decided to set up a voluntary patent pool for medicines. The initial focus of the Patent Pool will be on increasing access to newer antiretroviral medicines (ARVs) and encouraging the development of adapted formulations. The Pool will aim to promote reductions in the price of existing ARVs and stimulate the production of newer first- and second-line ARVs by increasing the number of generic producers of these medicines. The pool will also help to fill the gap for 'missing essential ARVs', such as fixed-dose combinations of newer products and special formulations for children.

Meanwhile, responding to an earlier report in Pharmabiz which stated that the WHO is planning the patent pool, a senior official from WHO clarified that the patent pool is an initiative of UNITAID and not from WHO itself. UNITAID is hosted by the WHO and is working closely with WHO, in efforts like determining which AIDS medicines are priority medicines.