KNOWLEDGE PORTAL
on innovation and access to medicines

In 2020, “WHO, the Government of Costa Rica and other partners launched the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) to facilitate faster equitable and affordable access to COVID-19 health products for people in all countries…C-TAP provides a single global platform for the developers of COVID-19 therapeutics, diagnostics, vaccines and other health products to share their intellectual property, knowledge, and data with quality-assured manufacturers through public health-driven, transparent, voluntary, non-exclusive and transparent licenses. It also provides support for technology transfer agreements. Through voluntary licensing and patent pooling, patent holders can reach new markets and scale up production using untapped capacity of manufacturers around the world, while securing appropriate royalties” (WHO, n.d.).

XPRIZE is “a trusted, proven platform for impact that leverages the power of competition to catalyze innovation and accelerate a more hopeful future by incentivizing radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity” (XPRIZE, n.d.). Within their health domain, they foster cross-disciplinary collaboration and provide prize incentives to accelerate “the development of convergent technologies that improve prevention, diagnostics, therapy, and public health" (ibid).

This initiative was selected based on its inclusion in the report “RE:ROUTE, A map of the alternative biomedical R&D landscape”, (Kiddell-Monroe, Greenberg, and Basey 2016).

The mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub was created and supported by WHO, the Medicines Patent Pool and the Act-Accelerator/COVAX, with a mandate "to build capacity in low- and middle-income countries to produce mRNA vaccines". The South African Hub "comprises Afrigen Biologics, the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and Biovac, a South African vaccine producer. Within this consortium, Afrigen is the entity mandated to establish mRNA vaccine production technology, SAMRC is providing the research and Biovac is the first manufacturing spoke".

“WIPO Re:Search is a global consortium founded by BVGH, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and leading pharmaceutical companies. The aim of the Consortium is to accelerate the development of new drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), malaria, and tuberculosis through the sharing of intellectual property (IP)” (BVGH, n.d.).

"ImplaVax® is a novel formulation and needle-free device technology that enables solid dose vaccine implants to be delivered quickly under the skin" (PRNewswise, 2019).
aVaxZiPen received funding from BARDA and aims to have a positive impact in global health through the development of vaccine delivery mechanisms that do not require cold chain and can be commercialize at affordable prices (LinkedIn, 2023).

reVision Therapeutics was founded to “reimagine the drug development lifecycle by finding new life for existing products to treat high-impact ophthalmic diseases…Each ophthalmic medicine reVision develops addresses an unmet or poorly met need, irrespective of that medicine’s potential to offer traditional patent or pricing exclusivity. reVision’s unique adoption model seeks patient, doctor, and payer commitments during development to facilitate early product adoption in return for prices that encourage access. By finding a new way to commercialize, reVision seeks to improve the drug price paradigm through free market competitive pressure, shifting the debate on drug costs away from imposing price controls and undermining patents and innovation” (reVision Therapeutics, n.d.).