Under the NIH Public Access Policy, recipients of NIH funding grant the agency a Government Use License, often referred to as a Federal Purpose License.
The Government Use License states:
“By accepting NIH funding, the recipient grants to NIH, as the funding agency, a royalty-free, nonexclusive, and irrevocable right to reproduce, publish, or otherwise use the work for federal purposes and to authorize others to do so, which includes making Author Accepted Manuscripts publicly available in PubMed Central upon the Official Date of Publication.”
While the NIH may permit full reuse of the manuscripts to the public, the NIH Public Access Policy does not explicitly grant these rights to the public.
For more, please review NIH Supplemental Guidance on Government Use License and Rights.