Technology transfer

Definition

Tech­nol­ogy trans­fer broadly refers to the trans­fer of data, designs, inven­tions, mate­ri­als, cell lines, soft­ware, man­u­fac­tur­ing knowl­edge, trade secrets, and other ele­ments from one orga­ni­za­tion to another. Recip­i­ents of these trans­fers can speed up the man­u­fac­ture of small mol­e­cule drugs, bio­log­ics, vac­cines, diag­nos­tics, and other types of health tech­nolo­gies like gene- and cell-ther­a­pies. Tech­nol­ogy trans­fer can be vol­un­tary or man­dated by gov­ern­ments through sev­eral legal mech­a­nisms. Given that knowl­edge shar­ing is often needed to scale up the man­u­fac­ture of health tech­nolo­gies, gov­ern­ments and other stake­hold­ers are increas­ingly rec­og­niz­ing tech­nol­ogy trans­fer as a crit­i­cal com­po­nent of the right to health frame­work.

Sev­eral res­o­lu­tions avail­able in the Lan­guage Com­pendium reflect com­mit­ments to facil­i­tate tech­nol­ogy trans­fer, but only on “mutu­ally agreed terms.” Com­mit­ments to facil­i­tate tech­nol­ogy trans­fer on “mutu­ally agreed terms” fall short from the types of poli­cies that are required to ensure equi­table access to med­ical inno­va­tion and ful­fill the right to health. There­fore, com­mit­ments to facil­i­tate trans­fers on “mutu­ally agreed terms” are only a base­line. Fur­ther com­mit­ments should cre­ate bind­ing oblig­a­tions to trans­fer tech­nolo­gies even with­out the con­sent of prod­uct orig­i­na­tors, to facil­i­tate equi­table access and ful­fill the right to health. States should also adopt inter­na­tional com­mit­ments requir­ing pub­lic and phil­an­thropic fun­ders to embed equi­table access terms in their agree­ments with prod­uct devel­op­ers. States should fur­ther express sup­port for exist­ing tech­nol­ogy trans­fer ini­tia­tives like the mRNA tech­nol­ogy trans­fer hub.

Precedents

2022 Resolution on industrial development cooperation

• “Encour­ages the pro­mo­tion of South-South coop­er­a­tion, tri­an­gu­lar coop­er­a­tion and the trans­fer, dif­fu­sion and adop­tion of tech­nol­ogy on mutu­ally agreed terms in build­ing their engage­ment in inter­na­tional trade through the devel­op­ment of micro-, small and medium-sized enter­prises” (p. 10)

• “Stress­ing also that the cre­ation, devel­op­ment and dif­fu­sion of new inno­va­tions and tech­nolo­gies and asso­ci­ated know-how, includ­ing the trans­fer of tech­nol­ogy on mutu­ally agreed terms, are pow­er­ful dri­vers of eco­nomic growth and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment” (p. 5)

• “Encour­ages regional, sub­re­gional and inter­re­gional coop­er­a­tion as a plat­form for inter­na­tional indus­trial coop­er­a­tion aim­ing to pro­mote invest­ments and tech­nol­ogy trans­fer on mutu­ally agreed terms, to dis­sem­i­nate inclu­sive and equi­table poli­cies and prac­tices, as well as to fos­ter oppor­tu­ni­ties for high qual­ity and decent work, includ­ing for youth and women” (p. 9)

2022 Resolution on elevating pandemic prevention, preparedness and response to the highest level of political leadership

• “Empha­siz­ing the need to improve access to qual­ity, safe, effec­tive and afford­able vac­cines, ther­a­peu­tics, diag­nos­tics and other health tech­nolo­gies, inter alia, through build­ing capac­ity for local and regional pro­duc­tion, espe­cially in low- and mid­dle-income coun­tries, tech­nol­ogy trans­fer on mutu­ally agreed terms, coop­er­a­tion with, sup­port to and the devel­op­ment of vol­un­tary patent pools and other vol­un­tary ini­tia­tives, such as the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion COVID-19 Tech­nol­ogy Access Pool and the Med­i­cines Patent Pool, and pro­mot­ing generic com­pe­ti­tion in line with the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion road map for access to med­i­cines, vac­cines and other health prod­ucts, 2019–2023” (p. 4)

• “Calls upon Mem­ber States to pro­mote the trans­fer of tech­nol­ogy and know-how and encour­age research, inno­va­tion and com­mit­ments to vol­un­tary licens­ing, where pos­si­ble, in agree­ments where pub­lic fund­ing has been invested in research and devel­op­ment for pan­demic pre­ven­tion, pre­pared­ness and response, to strengthen local and regional capac­i­ties for the man­u­fac­tur­ing, reg­u­la­tion and pro­cure­ment of needed tools for equi­table and effec­tive access to vac­cines, ther­a­peu­tics, diag­nos­tics and essen­tial sup­plies, as well as for clin­i­cal tri­als, and to increase global sup­ply through facil­i­tat­ing trans­fer of tech­nol­ogy within the frame­work of rel­e­vant mul­ti­lat­eral agree­ments” (p. 6)

2022 HRC Res­o­lu­tion on ensuring equitable, affordable, timely and universal access for all countries to vaccines in response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic

• “Calls upon States and all rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers to pro­mote research and capac­ity-build­ing ini­tia­tives and to enhance coop­er­a­tion on and access to sci­ence, inno­va­tion, tech­nolo­gies, tech­ni­cal assis­tance and knowl­edge-shar­ing, to ensure uni­ver­sal, equi­table and afford­able access for all per­sons to COVID-19 vac­cines, includ­ing through improved coor­di­na­tion among mech­a­nisms, espe­cially with devel­op­ing coun­tries, in a col­lab­o­ra­tive, coor­di­nated and trans­par­ent man­ner and on mutu­ally agreed terms, in response to the COVID-19 pan­demic and towards advanc­ing the real­iza­tion of the Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals” (p. 5)

• “Encour­ages States and other stake­hold­ers to vol­un­tar­ily share tech­nol­ogy and sup­port the devel­op­ment of vol­un­tary patent pools, such as the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion COVID-19 Tech­nol­ogy Access Pool (C-TAP)” (p. 6)

2022 HRC Res­o­lu­tion on access to medicines, vaccines and other health products

• “

  Urges States and all rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers, in order to ensure timely, equi­table and unhin­dered access for all per­sons to safe, afford­able, effec­tive and qual­ity med­i­cines, vac­cines, diag­nos­tics and ther­a­peu­tics, and other health prod­ucts and tech­nolo­gies with a view to advanc­ing the real­iza­tion of the Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals:

  (a) To pro­mote research and capac­ity-build­ing ini­tia­tives, and to enhance inter­na­tional coop­er­a­tion on and access to sci­ence, inno­va­tion, tech­nolo­gies, tech­ni­cal assis­tance and knowl­edge-shar­ing, includ­ing by pool­ing ini­tia­tives, while appre­ci­at­ing the sub­stan­tive efforts many States have already made to this end;

  (b) To take all mea­sures nec­es­sary to strengthen regional and local pro­duc­tion, by pro­mot­ing inno­v­a­tive modal­i­ties of global part­ner­ships and tech­nol­ogy trans­fers, on mutu­ally agreed terms, and to facil­i­tate trade in med­i­cines, vac­cines and other health prod­ucts;

  (c) To share data and results in accor­dance with inter­na­tion­ally agreed prin­ci­ples, includ­ing shar­ing of pathogens, sam­ples and genetic sequenc­ing data, and ensure the fair and equi­table shar­ing of ben­e­fits that arise from their uti­liza­tion, in accor­dance with inter­na­tional access and ben­e­fit-shar­ing instru­ments;

  (d) To pro­mote the trans­fer of tech­nol­ogy and know-how on mutu­ally agreed terms, and to encour­age research, inno­va­tion and com­mit­ment, where pos­si­ble, to vol­un­tary licens­ing in all agree­ments in which pub­lic fund­ing has been invested in research and devel­op­ment;

  (e) To assist in efforts to build capac­ity through train­ing and finan­cial sup­port for devel­op­ing coun­tries to pro­duce health tech­nolo­gies, includ­ing mRNA vac­cine tech­nol­ogy;

  (f) To explore ways to pro­mote equi­table access and fair dis­tri­bu­tion of health prod­ucts, includ­ing the pos­si­ble estab­lish­ment of a global end-to-end plat­form;

  (g) To advance the health and care work­force invest­ment agenda, with a spe­cial focus on the pri­mary health-care work­force and employ­ment of women at all lev­els;

  (h) To take mea­sures to ensure acces­si­ble and afford­able access to health-care sys­tems for per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties;

  ” (p. 7)

• “Rec­og­nizes the inno­v­a­tive fund­ing mech­a­nisms and arrange­ments that con­trib­ute to the avail­abil­ity of vac­cines and med­i­cines in devel­op­ing coun­tries, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuber­cu­lo­sis and Malaria, the Gavi Alliance, Uni­taid, the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accel­er­a­tor ini­tia­tive and the COVID-19 Tech­nol­ogy Access Pool (C-TAP), espe­cially for those liv­ing in poverty, chil­dren and other per­sons in vul­ner­a­ble sit­u­a­tions, and calls upon all States, United Nations agen­cies, funds and pro­grammes, in par­tic­u­lar the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion, and rel­e­vant inter­gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions, within their respec­tive man­dates, and encour­ages rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers, includ­ing com­pa­nies involved in the research and devel­op­ment, man­u­fac­ture, import­ing, dis­tri­bu­tion and sup­ply of phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, while safe­guard­ing pub­lic health from undue influ­ence by any form of real, per­ceived or poten­tial con­flict of inter­est, to fur­ther col­lab­o­rate to enable equi­table access to qual­ity, safe and effec­tive med­i­cines and vac­cines that are afford­able to all, includ­ing those liv­ing in poverty, chil­dren and other per­sons in vul­ner­a­ble sit­u­a­tions” (p. 8)

2021 Resolution on science, technology and innovation for sustainable development

• “Reaf­firm­ing that the cre­ation, devel­op­ment and dif­fu­sion of new inno­va­tions and tech­nolo­gies and asso­ci­ated know-how, includ­ing the trans­fer of tech­nol­ogy on mutu­ally agreed terms, are pow­er­ful dri­vers of eco­nomic growth and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment” (p. 3)

• “Rec­og­niz­ing also the impor­tance of sup­port­ing poli­cies and activ­i­ties of devel­op­ing coun­tries in the fields of sci­ence, tech­nol­ogy and inno­va­tion through North-South, South-South and tri­an­gu­lar coop­er­a­tion in the areas of finan­cial and tech­ni­cal assis­tance, capac­ity-build­ing and tech­nol­ogy trans­fer on mutu­ally agreed terms” (p. 4)

• “Under­scores the need to adopt sci­ence, tech­nol­ogy and inno­va­tion strate­gies as inte­gral ele­ments of national sus­tain­able devel­op­ment plans and strate­gies that help to strengthen knowl­edge-shar­ing on mutu­ally agreed terms and col­lab­o­ra­tion and scale up invest­ment in sci­ence, tech­nol­ogy, engi­neer­ing and math­e­mat­ics edu­ca­tion, and enhance tech­ni­cal, voca­tional and ter­tiary edu­ca­tion and train­ing” (p. 6)

• “Also encour­ages Mem­ber States to pro­mote local inno­va­tion capa­bil­i­ties for inclu­sive and sus­tain­able eco­nomic devel­op­ment by bring­ing together local sci­en­tific, voca­tional and engi­neer­ing knowl­edge, mobi­liz­ing resources from mul­ti­ple chan­nels, improv­ing infor­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tions tech­nol­ogy and sup­port­ing infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment” (p. 7)

2020 Resolution on industrial development cooperation

• “Stress­ing also that the cre­ation, devel­op­ment and dif­fu­sion of new inno­va­tions and tech­nolo­gies and asso­ci­ated know-how, includ­ing the trans­fer of tech­nol­ogy on mutu­ally agreed terms, are pow­er­ful dri­vers of eco­nomic growth and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment” (p. 4)

• “Encour­ages regional, sub­re­gional and inter­re­gional coop­er­a­tion as a plat­form for inter­na­tional indus­trial coop­er­a­tion aim­ing to pro­mote invest­ments and tech­nol­ogy trans­fer on mutu­ally agreed terms, to dis­sem­i­nate good poli­cies and prac­tices, as well as to fos­ter decent work, includ­ing for youth and women” (p. 8)

• “Encour­ages the pro­mo­tion of South-South coop­er­a­tion, tri­an­gu­lar coop­er­a­tion and the trans­fer, dif­fu­sion and adop­tion of tech­nol­ogy on mutu­ally agreed terms in build­ing their engage­ment in inter­na­tional trade through the devel­op­ment of micro-, small and medium-sized enter­prises” (p. 9)

2020 Resolution on global health and foreign policy: strengthening health system resilience through affordable health care for all

• “Encour­ages Mem­ber States, inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tions and other rel­e­vant stake­hold­ers to work col­lab­o­ra­tively at all lev­els to develop, test and scale up pro­duc­tion of safe, effec­tive, qual­ity, afford­able diag­nos­tics, ther­a­peu­tics, med­i­cines and vac­cines, inter alia and as appro­pri­ate through the use of exist­ing mech­a­nisms, such as the Med­i­cines Patent Pool, to pro­mote equi­table, afford­able and timely access to med­ical prod­ucts and health tech­nolo­gies in health emer­gen­cies” (p. 8)

2019 Resolution on science, technology and innovation for sustainable development

• “Not­ing that the 2019 Global Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Report iden­ti­fies sci­ence, tech­nol­ogy and inno­va­tion as one of the levers for trans­for­ma­tion to accel­er­ate progress in achiev­ing the Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals and that its strate­gic deploy­ment has the poten­tial to resolve and min­i­mize trade-offs among the Goals and tar­gets, and rec­og­nizes that tech­nol­ogy trans­fer to devel­op­ing coun­tries on mutu­ally agreed terms will be crit­i­cal to scale up and accel­er­ate the imple­men­ta­tion of the 2030 Agenda for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment” (p. 2)

• “Reaf­firm­ing that the cre­ation, devel­op­ment and dif­fu­sion of new inno­va­tions and tech­nolo­gies and asso­ci­ated know-how, includ­ing the trans­fer of tech­nol­ogy on mutu­ally agreed terms, are pow­er­ful dri­vers of eco­nomic growth and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment” (p. 3)

• “Rec­og­niz­ing also the impor­tance of uti­liz­ing sci­ence, tech­nol­ogy and inno­va­tion in a man­ner rel­e­vant to spe­cific national and local sit­u­a­tions and needs” (p. 3)

• “Rec­og­niz­ing also the impor­tance of sup­port­ing poli­cies and activ­i­ties of devel­op­ing coun­tries in the fields of sci­ence, tech­nol­ogy and inno­va­tion through North-South, South-South and tri­an­gu­lar coop­er­a­tion in the areas of finan­cial and tech­ni­cal assis­tance, capac­ity-build­ing and tech­nol­ogy trans­fer on mutu­ally agreed terms” (p. 4)