Dialogue on Intellectual Property and Health with International Organizations

April 5, 2023

On March 28, 2023, WIPO held the third installment of the series “Dialogues on Intellectual Property and Health”, bringing together Geneva-based international organizations whose operational work touches on the intersection of IP and health. The purpose of the series is to provide a forum to share experiences and challenges, and to strengthen WIPO’s support to innovation access initiatives. This time, the discussion centered around Socially Responsible Licensing (SRL) in publicly funded institutions and on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) considerations in the policies of international partnership organizations working on global health and access to medicines.

Socially Responsible Licensing

The right to the highest attainable standard of health depends on access to medicines and health services. Furthermore, SDG 3.b calls for efforts to ensure that everyone has access to affordable medicines.

Socially Responsible Licensing in the health sector refers to licensing policies and practices that promote access to medical products for everyone who needs them. The institution or funder of the product adopts a policy that demands that any licensing agreements on IP resulting from its research must include contractual requirements ensuring that the product is accessible in resource-poor settings. The IP owner should ensure that the license does not deter public access to essential technologies and that the transactions lead to the lasting social benefit.

Round-table discussion: IPR considerations in the mission and operational model of international partnership projects

International organizations working in the global health sector are generally, at least to a considerable extent, recipients and distributors of public funding for their research and development (R&D) projects. Looking at their operational models and IP policies and their practical implementation can be informative to show how IPRs can be used to meet public health goals.  During the seminar, participants engaged in a roundtable discussion sharing their experiences around IP questions in their funding and operational policies, providing concrete examples.

Topics covered included open innovation and compound and data sharing and how to address the challenges of implementing multi-party agreements. For example, a practical challenge that was discussed involved negotiating IP-related provisions in instances where the initial manufacturing partner is unable to continue production.

Through this series and other events, WIPO is helping to leverage IP in support of both health innovation and access.