Transformation and slippage in co-production ambitions for global technology development: The case of gene drive

•Co-production regularly falls short of its transformation ambitions.•Co-production is being stretched beyond the local into global research and technology spaces.•The meaning of co-production is extended in transformative ways in global gene drive.•Transformative ambitions in gene drive‘slip’ towards reductive framings of collaboration.•Slippage in co-production can be linked to established and new knowledge hierarchies.