Despite significant public funding, most of the 15 largest public research universities in Canada failed to enact policies that would ensure medicines that emerged from their laboratories would be equally accessible around the world, according to a new analysis.
Half of biomedical licensing agreements established at the universities during a recent two-year period did not insist on retaining exclusive control over underlying technologies. And less than one-quarter of all licensing agreements reached by the schools included provisions to promote access in low- and -middle-income countries, as defined by the World Bank.
In addition, 10 universities did not make any public or official commitments to promote access to medicines, or sign any licensing agreements to promote the affordability of medicines in countries with limited resources. And 12 of the universities have not signed on to Covid-19 licensing agreements to promote intellectual property sharing with the aim of minimizing disease impact.
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