UC Berkeley Releases New Affordable Access Plan

April 25, BERKELEY, CA — The University of California, Berkeley, in partnership with Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), has released and posted a new License agreement template that includes affordable access plan (AAP) provisions for health technologies developed by university researchers. The agreement language has been used previously by the university and is designed to require eventual licensees to create an actionable plan to ensure health technologies are accessible to people in low- and middle-income countries, and to address major inequities in communities across the United States. 

“The UC Berkeley Office of Intellectual Property and Industry Research Alliances partnership with UAEM students and the MPP has shown they not only prioritize innovative research, but also access to world-class medical technologies by those most underserved. Berkeley’s leadership ensures their mission for public impact is met by action. It is time that other academic research institutions follow suit,” said Megan Curtin, chapter leader for UAEM at UC Berkeley. 

UC Berkeley plans to use this license agreement template for all medical technologies going forward, and is encouraging other campuses across the University of California system to join in. Berkeley IPIRA has met with the leaders of all the other UC offices of technology licensing and notified them of the new license template with the AAP language. 

"We’re delighted to continue UC Berkeley’s longstanding tradition of adopting intellectual property management strategies that maximize the humanitarian impact of campus research," says Laleh Shayesteh, Director of Intellectual Property and Administration in the UC Berkeley Office of Technology Licensing. "By addressing affordable pricing and widespread access, these provisions motivate licensees to develop therapeutics born in Berkeley labs for distribution to underserved communities in the U.S. and around the world." 

The template’s affordable access provision is substantively similar to that developed by the Medicines Patent Pool in collaboration with UCLA and UAEM.

With this new AAP in hand, UC Berkeley joins UCLA in pushing the envelope for equitable university licensing of medical technologies. 

“We hope that the rest of the UC campuses follow the lead of Berkeley and UCLA. The AAP is the most innovative approach we have seen to equitable licensing in the United States. It builds upon the principles and ideas UAEM has been talking about as a part of our Equitable Access Licensing Framework, and sets a new gold standard for universities all over the world,” said Justin Mendoza, MPH, Executive Director, UAEM North America. 

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