After last week's fanfare (in Israel, anyway) about the Israeli government exercising rights under section 104 of the patent statute to allow importation of a generic of Abbvie's Kaletra tablets, this week reports are surfacing that Abbvie is suspending enforcement of its Kaletra patents worldwide, or possibly waiving its rights altogether, if the reporting in The Financial Times is accurate. The FT piece seems to imply that Abbvie took this course of action as a result of Israel's action, but that conclusion is questionable. As one person working for the state of Israel noted, it's clear that Abbvie couldn't meet demand at the present time, so why not allow others to supply the drug? And given the unimpressive results from tests in China in January, it's likely that Abbvie suspects, or possibly already knows, that the drug will be ineffective against COVID-19. In which case it's a publicity win for Abbvie.
It's worth noting that there's nothing on Abbvie's site about this. While the FT report begins by stating, dramatically, "AbbVie is giving up its patents on a combination drug that is being studied as a coronavirus treatment", the FT story later says "The company gave notice of the change last week, according to a document seen by the Financial Times..." Inasmuch as that document isn't presented on FT's site, Abbvie evidently only showed it under an agreement of confidentiality.
Since Kaletra is used to keep HIV/AIDS in check, but not to eradicate the disease, and therefore must be taken regularly by patients, it's difficult to believe that Abbvie would willingly forfeit profits from the drug in those countries where patent protection is still in force. Perhaps Abbvie has simply indicated it won't enforce its patent against importers who import for purposes of COVID-19 testing. Time will tell.