AbbVie is giving up its patents on a combination drug that is being studied as a coronavirus treatment, becoming the first major drugmaker to drop its rights to make money from a drug that might be used during the pandemic.
The US drugmaker will no longer enforce patents relating to Kaletra anywhere in the world for all formulations, according to the Medicines Patent Pool, a UN-backed non-governmental organisation.
The company gave notice of the change last week, according to a document seen by the Financial Times, after Israel moved to issue a compulsory licence for the drug combination’s use against the SARS-CoV2 coronavirus that is spreading worldwide.