Voluntary Licensing (VL) is one among several approaches that could help alleviate the global health crisis. The purposes of this project are to refine the set of contracts and strategies that together constitute VL and then to prepare a report designed to assist innovators, purchasers, and funders to deploy this approach.
The project is funded by a generous grant from the John C. Martin Foundation, led by Harvard University, and supported by Stanford University and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The Principal Investigators are Professors William Fisher and Ruth Okediji of Harvard Law School. The co-leaders of the project are Clifford Samuel and Claudio Lilienfeld (both Fellows at at the Berkman Klein Center). The representatives of Stanford University are Abraham Sofaer and Ken Shotts. The representative of the Carnegie Endowment is Ashley Tellis.
Preliminary drafts of the principal report of the project were discussed at two conferences, attended by a diverse group of experts and stakeholders. The first was held at Harvard University on June 1-2, 2022; the second at the Stanford Business School on September 7-8, 2022. The drafts were substantially revised in light of the attendees’ comments.
The final version of the report was discussed — and released to the public — at a meeting hosted by the Carnegie Endowment on April 18, 2023.
In the remainder of 2023, the project leaders plan to discuss the report with representatives of national governments, pharmaceutical firms, generic manufacturers, and nongovernmental organizations. Those conversations are likely to provoke preparation of a second edition of the report.
The fruits of the project are available through the following links: