The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the drastic inequalities on a global scale when it came to equitably accessing life-saving medicines, vaccines, and diagnostic tools, and exposed the flaws in a patent scheme that emphasises on rewarding invention but fails to distinguish the significance of public health. This article examines the potential of patent pools and open licensing to serve as transformers in the response to equity in future pandemics. The scope of the study includes a detailed legal and economic analysis of the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) besides the WHO COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), with specific focus on how these initiatives used the flexibilities of the TRIPS Agreement to exercise equity, solidarity, and transparency. Using a multidisciplinary method incorporating doctrinal analysis, economic analysis of collaborative IP Models and political assessment of global health governance, the article offers explanations for the most significant positive structural outcomes of cooperative IP arrangements. Findings indicate that delinking R&D costs from pricing of the final product strengthens innovation, as well as global health equity. It is suggested that the institutionalization of patent pooling and mandatory open licensing should be required in the foundation of future pandemic preparedness, an advancement not a rejection of the IP system as it relates to innovation in public health.
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