The US is to share some coronavirus-related technologies developed by the National Institutes of Health with the World Health Organization, according to the Washington Post.
The Post adds that the technologies will be licensed to the WHO's COVID-19 Technology Access Pool and sub-licensed to the Medicines Patent Pool, but notes that National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease Director Anthony Fauci declined to name which technologies would be shared as the specifics of the plan are still being worked out.
Still, unnamed officials tell the Post that this does not extend to vaccines and technologies developed by private companies and that it is not expected to include the technology developed by NIH that was used in Moderna's SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.
"I thank NIH for its offer of innovative therapeutics, vaccines, and diagnostic methods for COVID-19," WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, says in a statement. "Voluntary sharing of technologies through non-exclusive agreements will not only help us put the pandemic behind us; it will also empower low- and middle-income countries to produce their own medical products and achieve equitable access."