The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), a United Nations-backed public health organisation, has signed sublicence agreements with three India-based companies, Eugia, Hetero and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, along with Indonesian-based company BrightGene, to manufacture generic versions of Novartis’ cancer treatment nilotinib that is used for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML).

These are the first sublicence agreements that MPP has signed for a cancer treatment and are the result of a licence agreement signed between MPP and Novartis Pharma AG in October 2022 for their patented cancer medicine.

The selected generic manufacturers can manufacture generic versions of nilotinib in India and seven middle-income countries and supply it in 44 territories included in the licence through a non-exclusive licence agreement, subject to local regulatory authorisation.

The licence includes the opportunity to develop and supply generic version of nilotinib in seven middle-income countries, namely Egypt, Guatemala, Indonesia, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tunisia, where patents on the product are pending or in force.

In 2020, the World Health Organisation reported that more than 3.5 million new cancer cases were diagnosed in low- middle-income countries (LMICs), and premature deaths from cancer in these countries will rise from 2.3 million to 4 million in the next twenty years.