Key Dates

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Issued by

Office of The Director, National Institutes of Health (OD)

Purpose

As the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research, NIH seeks to drive effective partnerships that foster a shared commitment to transforming knowledge into improved health for all. These investments are critical to the health of our scientific enterprise, both in terms of supporting research discoveries and by fueling U.S. leadership in the bioeconomy. Indeed, NIH-owned inventions have provided the foundation for new vaccines, drugs, and medical devices. And a recent report estimated that technology licensed from the Intramural Research Program (IRP) supported an average of 74,500 jobs and contributed an average of over $13 billion to U.S. GDP each year over the last two decades.

NIH recognizes that all too often, however, patients across the country and across the globe may be unable to access products they need—a treatment for their disease may not yet exist, or it might exist but be out of reach because it is too expensive or difficult to take. For example, millions of adults skip medications due to high costs, and the rising cost of prescription drugs puts many of these products out of reach. Thus, NIH is exploring how it might leverage partnerships to further enhance health through the biomedical research it funds.

NIH is proposing to develop and implement a new policy within its IRP to promote access to products stemming from taxpayer funded inventions. NIH seeks input on this draft policy and accompanying draft license agreement language that incorporates patient access in the commercialization process for NIH-owned inventions.

Complete details on the draft policy may be found in the Federal Register..

Comments must be submitted electronically at: https://osp.od.nih.gov/comment-form-draft-nih-intramural-research-program-policy-promoting-equity-through-access-planning/.  Comments will be accepted until June 22, 2024.

Comments are voluntary and may be submitted anonymously. You may also voluntarily include your name and contact information with the response. Other than name and contact information, please do not include in the response any personally identifiable information or any information that you do not wish to make public. Proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should not be included in your response. After the Office of Science Policy (OSP) has finished reviewing the responses, the responses may be posted to the OSP website without redaction.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

NIH Office of Science Policy

SciencePolicy@od.nih.gov