Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Management for Public Health in the Regional Office for South-East Asia

Overview

The present document is a framework for technology transfer for intellectual property management and access to medical products in the context of Public Health, and Intellectual Property for the countries of SE Asia Region.

The raison d’etre for the document is the request by member countries of the Regional Office to build technical capacity and explore options for technology transfer to accelerate local production and access to medical products (medicines, vaccines, diagnostics, devices) in SEAR countries.

In particular, the work reflects two major World Health Assembly (WHA) resolutions:

WHA 75.14- Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation, and Intellectual Property (GSPA-PHI), WHA 75.14 (extended by WHA from 2022 to 2030, coterminus with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG2030)) (WHO,2022a).

WHA 74.6- resolution of May 2021 “Strengthening local production of medicines and other health technologies to improve access” under which WHA is committed to strengthening local production including cooperation with, support to, and development of voluntary patent pools and other voluntary initiatives for promoting access to medical products (medicines, vaccines, diagnostics, devices) (WHO, 2021).