U.S. licenses COVID-19 health technology to WHO
Sean Gallup/Getty Images News


The National Institutes of Health (NIH) finalized a licensing agreement on Thursday with the World Health Organization (WHO) over key COVID -19 technologies to increase global access to vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostic tools.
The deal with COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) will allow manufacturers âto make these technologies accessible to people living in low- and middle-income countries and help put an end to the pandemic,â the WHO said.

11 COVID-19 technologies covered under the deal include two licenses for stabilized spike protein used in currently available COVID-19 vaccine, therapeutics, early-stage vaccine candidates and diagnostics.
Vaccine maker Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) partnered with NIH to develop the companyâs blockbuster COVID-19 shot, Spikevax.
Last year, NIH protested when Moderna (MRNA) listed, in a patent application, only its employees as inventors of a key vaccine component. Subsequently, the dispute ended when the company pulled the application.
The announcement of the licensing agreement coincided with the second Global COVID-19 Summit, co-hosted by the U.S. on Thursday, as the country marks over one million COVID related deaths.