The Biden administration wants to ensure manufacturers of health technology more readily share their products during the next public health emergency, according to a March 17 Politico report.
Politico obtained a draft document from HHS that was crafted by Biden administration officials and a group from the World Health Organization. The document advocates for increasing global health equity by increasing sharing of data from things such as genomic sequences and pathogens, as well as purchasing agreements in contracts for such health tech developments.
The document reads that the WHO would facilitate "voluntary licensing of critical public health response products by manufacturers on mutually agreed terms, including the voluntary transfer of technology and know-how on such terms."
"It is our hope that in making improvements … we can solve some of these problems like transparency, accountability, obviously, the sharing or availability of data," said Loyce Pace, assistant secretary for global affairs at HHS in a briefing last month.