The licensing agreements and technology transfer contracts that govern global health partnerships are among the most consequential, and least scrutinized documents in the field. The terms negotiated within them do not simply define a commercial relationship. They determine whether a healthcare product will ultimately be affordable, available, and appropriate for the populations that need it most.
This is the central challenge that GHIAA and the Innovus Technology Transfer Office at Stellenbosch University are addressing in the second installment of their joint webinar series on equitable access to healthcare innovations.
Building on the first session which introduced the MAPGuide® and the tools available to practitioners for embedding equitable access commitments across the R&D value chain, this webinar goes deeper into the realities of practice. It convenes IP attorneys, technology transfer specialists, and biotech legal experts for a candid examination of how licensing terms are negotiated under real commercial pressure, where the gaps in current practice lie, and what it looks like when access considerations are successfully built into the contract from the outset.
Key objectives
This session will address three core questions facing practitioners across the R&D value chain:
1. How are commercial incentives and public access balanced in practice?
Advancing research and development requires financial investment and commercial return. But the structures that make R&D viable can also constrain who benefits from the resulting products. This session examines how practitioners navigate that tension — and where the leverage points for access-oriented outcomes lie.
2. What does access-oriented contract language actually look like?
Policy commitments to equitable access are only as durable as the contractual provisions that implement them. This session will examine the technical dimensions of licensing language — how specific terms around pricing, sublicensing, field-of-use restrictions, and manufacturing rights shape a product’s availability and affordability at the point of patient need.
3. Where are the gaps and what comes next?
Current development plans frequently fail to incorporate access considerations until late in the R&D journey, when the commercial architecture of a product is already largely fixed. This session will identify where those gaps occur and explore how access can be embedded into decision-making from the earliest stages of a partnership.
Speakers
Julia Barnes-Weise is one of the leading voices in global health agreement practice. As Executive Director of GHIAA, she oversees the development of the MAPGuide® platform and leads GHIAA’s consulting and partnership work with funders, academic institutions, and commercial developers across the global health ecosystem.
Dr. van Harmelen is a leading intellectual property attorney with extensive experience in licensing and technology transfer across the African continent. As Chair of the Licensing Executives Society South Africa, she brings both practitioner depth and institutional perspective to the conversation.
Saberi Marais works at the intersection of academic research and commercial development, supporting Stellenbosch University researchers in translating discoveries into partnerships that serve the public interest. His work with the Innovus TTO places him at one of the most consequential handoff points in the R&D value chain.
Dr. de Gama brings a unique vantage point to this conversation, that of a biotech company operating at the frontier of equitable access in practice. Afrigen Biologics has been central to Africa’s mRNA technology transfer efforts, making Dr. de Gama’s perspective on the legal architecture of access-oriented partnerships directly grounded in real-world experience.
Event details
Date: Monday, July 13, 2026
Time: 13:00–14:30 SAST
Location: Online (Microsoft teams)
This webinar is designed for researchers, technology transfer professionals, biotech companies, funders, and legal practitioners working at the intersection of innovation and access.
For event inquiries, contact Innovus TTO at tto@sun.ac.za
For general GHIAA inquiries, contact comms@ghiaa.org
About this series
This webinar is the second in a joint series convened by GHIAA and the Innovus Technology Transfer Office at Stellenbosch University, focused on equitable access to healthcare innovations across the R&D value chain. The first session, held on June 10, 2026, introduced the MAPGuide® and the contractual tools available to practitioners for embedding access commitments into global health partnerships. The presentation from that session is available [here].