Mr. Charles Gore

Charles Gore is the Executive Director of the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP). He took up the post in July 2018 following a career in patient representation and public health advocacy. In a short period of time, he has advanced the work of MPP in HIV and viral hepatitis and led the organization’s strategy for expanding its mandate into essential medicines and COVID-19 treatments as well as the licensing of technology with an initial focus on COVID-19 vaccines and pandemic preparedness.

He was diagnosed with hepatitis C in 1995 and cirrhosis in 1998. In 2000, he set up The Hepatitis C Trust in the UK which he ran for 18 years. In 2002, he was treated and cured of the virus. He helped create the European Liver Patients Association and was its first President in 2004. In 2007 he organized a meeting of hepatitis patient organizations from around the world to agree on co-ordinated global action. From this emerged the decision to hold an annual World Hepatitis Day and to create a new NGO, the World Hepatitis Alliance, of which Charles served as the President from 2007 until the end of 2017. As a result of advocacy by the Alliance and its members, the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted successive viral hepatitis resolutions in 2010, 2014, and 2016, making World Hepatitis Day an official day, celebrated on 28 July every year, and endorsing the first Global Health Sector Strategy on viral hepatitis with the goal of eliminating hepatitis B and C by 2030.

In addition to direct advocacy with over 50 ministries of health, Charles has led on advising countries on finding sustainable domestic financing for hepatitis programmes, including health system elements such as infection control and blood and injection safety. Charle also sits on a number of national and international advisory bodies, including the WHO Director-General’s Strategic and Technical Advisory Committee for Viral Hepatitis and he has been a member of all the WHO guideline development groups on testing and treating viral hepatitis.