Commentary: Fulfilling the Promise of Global Access Licensing Principles to Enable Equitable Access.

ABSTRACT

In their piece, Herder and colleagues (2022) reveal the university origins of a key technology used in COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. They note that despite federal funding support and the university adopting "Global Access Principles," equitable, global access remains a challenge - in part due to the university's technology transfer practices. While for the past two decades university students have been successful in engaging institutional technology transfer offices in adopting similar access principles, implementation of these principles has been limited. This rejoinder points to the need for greater federal oversight and regulation to incentivize university action that enables equitable, global access.