Sandrik’s scholarship looks at NIH-Moderna collaboration

In her most recent article, “The NIH-Moderna Public-Private Partnership: A New Contractual Model for Securing Innovation” (Texas A&M Law Review, forthcoming 2024-25), Professor Karen Sandrik examines the high-profile collaboration between the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Moderna to develop the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. While initially praised as a groundbreaking partnership, cracks began to appear as disputes arose over patent rights and equitable global access to the largely taxpayer-funded vaccine.

Through an in-depth case study of the NIH-Moderna’s many contractual agreements, Sandrik argues that the parties’ use of boilerplate intellectual property clauses and lack of meaningful governance structures failed to address the unique challenges inherent in such a complex partnership. Drawing on relational contract theory, Sandrik proposes model contractual language designed to promote transparency, resolve disputes, align incentives, and foster resilient, cooperative relationships.

As public-private partnerships become an increasingly vital tool in addressing global health challenges, we must learn from the successes and failures of our past collaborations. By sharing her research with the legal community, Sandrik hopes to encourage dialogue about how we can structure these partnerships to better serve the public good while still rewarding private innovation. The NIH-Moderna story and global pandemic highlight the urgency of this task and the key role lawyers can play in shaping the future of biomedical research.

Sandrik received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award for the 2024-2025 academic year. She will spend the 2025 spring semester in Bratislava, Slovakia, at Comenius University. She plans to continue researching public-private partnerships, yet this time with a focus on early-phase research and academic science technology transfer in Central Europe.