About Us
Our Vision
Universities and publicly funded research institutions will be part of the solution to the access to medicines crisis by promoting medical innovation in the public interest and ensuring that all people regardless of income have access to essential medicines and other health-related technologies.
Our Mission
As a private non-profit organization rooted in a movement of university students, UAEM aims to
- promote access to medicines for people in developing countries by changing norms and practices around university patenting and licensing
- ensure that university medical research meets the needs of the majority of the world’s population
- empower students to respond to the access and innovation crisis
Our Values
As committed students from all over the world who passionately believe in social justice and health equity, we find it unacceptable that millions of people do not have access to essential medicines. We are particularly concerned about people in developing countries who are disproportionately affected by the access to medicines crisis.
Universities have a social compact with society and, as educational and research institutions, they have a responsibility to promote and manage the deployment of innovations for the public benefit. In no field are the moral imperatives to do so as clear as they are in medicine.
Students are uniquely positioned to push for normative change in their universities and research institutions. We will use the intellectual sophistication, rigour and integrity of our members to fight for increased innovation as well as access to medicines and health-related technologies for all.
Our work is guided at all times by principles of non-partisanship, democracy, transparency and respect.
Our People
Our Supporters
In the past year, UAEM’s work has been made possible through the generous support of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the John M. Lloyd Foundation, the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Moriah Fund, the Open Society Institute, Oxfam America, the Perls Foundation and the generous contributions of our individual donors.
Learn More
Universities are well-placed to make a difference. University scientists are major contributors in the drug development pipeline. At the same time, universities have an avowed commitment to advancing the public good. As members of these universities, our fundamental goal is to hold them to this commitment.
The Philadelphia Consensus Statement–which we invite you to endorse–provides a concise statement of our specific proposals.
UAEM is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and tax-exempt organization.
You can download our 2006 IRS Form 990 here.
You can download our 2007 IRS Form 990 here.