Gilead Sciences, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, has signed a new license agreement for production of Bictegravir medicine for treating adult HIV with the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) to expand access to the Bictegravir innovative medicine.

According to a posting on the website of Gilead Sciences, Gilead has also expanded its licensing agreements with Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, Strides Shasun Limited, Mylan Laboratories Limited and SeQuent Scientific Limited to include Bictegravir, and products incorporating the compound, for distribution in 116 developing countries.

Under these voluntary licensing agreements, the manufacturers may produce Bictegravir as a single agent or in fixed-dose combinations with other HIV medicines. Gilead and the MPP recently expanded the geographic scope of the licensing agreements for Gilead’s other HIV therapies to include Ukraine, Malaysia, Philippines and Belarus.

Voluntary licensing agreements are a key component of Gilead's efforts to increase access to the company's therapies in the developing world. Competition among manufacturers has reduced the lowest price of a Gilead HIV generic therapy to $3.50 per patient per month.

The Indian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association (IPMA, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited is a member of the association) told Interfax-Ukraine that all Indian pharmaceutical companies that signed the license agreement with Gilead Sciences intend to register these products in Ukraine.

"This is not the first case for India. Earlier Indian pharmaceutical companies signed many similar agreements, which makes it possible to make medicines available to patients," IPMA President Dr. Ramanan Menon said.

He said that when these agreements are signed, the countries where a particular drug can be delivered are indicated.

"In this case, Ukraine is on the list of the countries. This tool will be applied in Ukraine as well. One of the main goals of the license agreement is affordability of treatment," he said.