On Sept. 21, 2021, the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) announced that it had signed a licence agreement with Tandem Nano, the University of Liverpool start-up focused on the development of its proprietary long-acting nanosystems platform technology. The non-exclusive, worldwide licence covers the patents and expertise of promising long-acting injectable technologies (LAIs) that could be applied in three disease areas with a high prevalence in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs): malaria, tuberculosis (TB), and hepatitis C (HCV).

The candidate LAIs, currently developed by the Centre of Excellence for Long-acting Therapeutics (CELT) based at UoL, could provide optimal doses of medicines for malaria chemoprophylaxis, TB prevention, and HCV cure. The research teams are designing medicines to be delivered through a single injection to achieve the desired effect on the pathogens over prolonged periods, suppressing the need for daily oral pills, among many other advantages at the individual and the community levels.

Approximately 90% of people affected by malaria, 95% of people affected by tuberculosis, and 75% of people living with hepatitis C live in LMICs with a combined burden estimated at 300 million people with more than two million deaths per year in these regions. The MPP-TNL licence will enable accelerated access to affordable, high-quality versions of these promising LAI treatments to these countries. With this licence, MPP will now engage with the relevant stakeholders towards licensing to suitable developers and generic manufacturers.