LAUSR

Abstract Seattle-based PATH is one of the world’s largest not-for profit organisations focused on improving health in low-income countries. This article argues the history of this understudied organisation is critical to understanding how collective action focused on facilitating developing countries’ access to essential health technologies is structured. Since its establishment almost 40 years ago, the organisation has been a catalyst for multidisciplinary public–private collaboration that has produced affordable, culturally appropriate health technologies. From its origins in reproductive health, enabling contraceptive technology transfers and advising on regulatory standards, to its more recent managerial roles in the development of inexpensive vaccines produced in developing countries, PATH has repeatedly illustrated how public–private collaboration in product research and development can increase poor populations’ access to essential health technologies. This in turn has provided substance to the contested narrative that engaging business is critical to reducing global health disparities.