Development of a Canadian Framework for Global Health Access and Equity: Outcomes from the 2025 Global Health Access and Equity Workshop at the University of British Columbia

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed stark inequities in access to life-saving technologies and innovations, particularly for countries in the Global South. While scientific advances were rapid, the benefits of those breakthroughs were not equitably shared, highlighting deep structural imbalances in global health governance. In response, Canadian institutions must lead by example to ensure that future innovations arising from publicly funded research are made equitably accessible. The Global Health Access and Equity Workshop, held in March 2025 by the Neglected Global Diseases Initiative at UBC, convened experts from academia, civil society, and government to identify key barriers and propose a framework for action. This viewpoint outlines the workshop’s vision, summarizes outcomes, and calls for the establishment of a Canadian framework guided by Global Access and Equity Principles (GAEP) to promote health equity globally and fulfill Canada’s moral, scientific, and policy obligations in the post-pandemic era.