Striking fair deals for equitable access to medicines

Abstract

There is a growing policy interest in public returns on public investments and, in particular, in how to ensure that investments in pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) result in inno-vation and equitable access. One suggested approach is to include conditions in R&D agreements, but there are few publicly available examples. R&D involves a diverse range of actors and interests, and such agreements need to achieve a delicate balance of various interrelated provisions on ownership of the research, cross-licensing rights, affordability of the final products, termination rights or technology transfer. This paper shares templates of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative's (DNDi's) collab-oration agreements, providing examples of an approach to achieving that balance, to help inform the debate. DNDi's IP and Access policies set clear objectives on the use and dissemination of its research work, which is carried out to address the needs of neglected populations. To achieve these objectives, DNDi has devised a singular approach to IP in its collaboration agreements with pub-lic and private entities, with the aim of develop-ing treatments as public goods. Concrete exam-ples of contractual clauses from DNDi licensing agreement templates illustrate the implementa-Tion of DNDi IP and other policies. The templates reflect the clear objective shared by DNDi and its partners of delivering affordable treatments to neglected populations.