WHO introduces the Health Technology Access Pool

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced the Health Technology Access Pool (HTAP) as the successor to the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP). C-TAP was launched in May 2020 by WHO, the Government of Costa Rica and other partners to facilitate equitable and affordable access to COVID-19 health products for people in all countries. The platform provided a much-needed forum for technology partners to voluntarily share intellectual property, knowledge, and data in order to accelerate technological innovation and expand access to COVID-19 tools. HTAP will promote access to health products that respond to public health priorities including pandemic preparedness and with relevance during and outside health emergencies. This approach will amplify the public health value of HTAP investments as well as the attractiveness of licensed technologies to recipient manufacturers by realising greater market opportunities and financial sustainability. The announcement on the licensing of a rapid diagnostic test platform technology serves as an example of such an approach. Later in the first quarter of 2024, WHO will publish further details on how HTAP will operate and the technologies it will target. The official launch of HTAP is planned for the second quarter of 2024.