<p>The COVID-19 pandemic is a prescient reminder of the need to foster global cooperation in the fight against public health emergencies. One potential avenue for cooperation involves reforming the international intellectual property regime to ensure timely access to affordable treatments in low-and-middle income countries without compromising on the incentives of pharmaceutical companies to innovate. However, the discourse on this issue has become increasingly polarised, with one side proposing modest reforms to the compulsory licensing system and the other pushing for a waiver of intellectual property rights. This paper aims to explore new approaches to facilitate the cross-border transfer of health technologies through cooperation between pharmaceutical companies, technology-exporting countries and technology-importing countries. It highlights the need for concrete obligations on technology-exporting countries to mitigate the rent-seeking behaviour of pharmaceutical companies based within their jurisdiction. The paper explores a combination of carrots and sticks that technology-exporting countries may deploy to this end. As regards carrots, the paper explores the potential for technology-exporting countries to provide tax incentives to encourage cross-border voluntary licensing by pharmaceutical companies under concessional and non-commercial terms during health crises. This is supplemented with a deterrent in the form of compulsory licensing of trade secrets to rein in the abuse of intellectual property rights by pharmaceutical companies. Additionally, the paper evaluates the consistency of these approaches with international rules governing intellectual property and subsidies, emphasising the need to update these rules to effectively address future pandemics and other health crises.</p>