Berkeley, CA - Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM), an international student advocacy group, today called on the Indian government to reconsider legislation that would govern the patenting of the results of publicly funded-research including publicly-funded medical research. The goals of the legislation are unclear and as currently written, the bill would likely harm access to medicines and impede the ability of scientists to conduct innovative research.

Proponents of the Indian bill claim it will help India to commercialize publicly-funded research by encouraging research institutions to seek patents. UAEM today issued a white paper raising questions about the impacts of university patenting in the United States under the Bayh-Dole Act while offering analysis of the Indian bill. The Indian bill is modeled after the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, which encouraged research institutions to seek patents and commercialize discoveries made through publicly-funded research. While patenting has risen since the passage of Bayh-Dole, it has also expanded into areas of basic research where patents prevent other research from using basic tools to conduct life-saving research. (more…)

Applications for other medicines are also posted here.

Special kudos and congrats to UAEMers Nicole Ramsey, Leanne Stratton, Becky Lambert and Sunny Kishore of Cornell and Matt Price of The Clinton Foundation/UAEM for driving this!

What is omeprazole?
Omeprazole is used along with two antibiotics (amoxicillin and metronidazole/clarithromycin) as part of triple therapy to eradicate Helicobacter pylori, a gut bacterium that drives ulcers and gastric cancers globally. Nearly half the world is infected with this bacterium. Note that one of the first-line antibiotics used in triple therapy, clarithromycin, is not on the essential medicines list — a gap that we were not able to address in time. A letter (but not an application) that highlights this gap accompanies the WHO petition for omeprazole.

You can read more about this important show of support below in the University of Michigan-UAEM press release.

Archbishop Tutu joins 9 other Nobel laureates in calling for change on our university campuses. (more…)

For Immediate Release

STUDENTS CONVERGE ON UC BERKELEY FOR GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON ACCESS TO MEDICINES: FORMER UN SPECIAL ENVOY TO ADDRESS ROLE OF UNIVERSITIES IN COMBATING MEDICAL CRISIS

Berkeley, CA, — The Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) Fall Conference will be held in Berkeley, CA on October 17-19, 2008. Among those addressing the conference will be Stephen Lewis, former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa and Co-Director of AIDS-Free World (www.aids-freeworld.org ) and Dr. Buddhi Lokuge, U.S Manager, Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, Doctors Without Borders/MSF.

The UAEM Fall Conference trains new members and provides a forum for a diverse array of students to discuss access to medicines issues and strategize for the school year. This year’s activism trainings are sponsored by UAEM partner, Americans for Informed Democracy. The conference draws student leaders not only from undergraduate colleges, but also from the schools of law, medicine, business, government, public health and graduate studies at the top research institutions across the country. Last year’s conference at Harvard brought together hundreds of students from 50 campuses across the United States, Canada, and the UK.

UC Berkeley is a key center for this progress: the university was the first major research university to announce a specific “socially responsible licensing” program and continues to be an advocate for improved university licensing practices. The 2008 Conference will provide an opportunity to support and reinforce the work of UAEM’s allies on the UC Berkeley campus and throughout the UC system. The Conference will also provide a critical rallying point for UAEM’s larger developing campaign statewide.

For more information on the Conference, visit http://www.essentialmedicine.org/fall-conference/. (more…)

UAEM URGES AAU TO WITHDRAW ENDORSEMENT OF ESHOO-BARTON FOLLOW-ON BIOLOGICS BILL

Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) today called on Robert M. Berdahl, President of the Association of American Universities (AAU), to withdraw its recent endorsement of H.R. 5629, the “Pathway for Biosimilars Acts,” which includes a term of exclusivity for market registration data that would effectively increase the length of patents on biologic drugs by up to 14.5 years. This is in contrast to the normal five years of market registration data exclusivity currently in place for small-molecule drugs. Biologics include critical medicines such as insulin and most vaccines, as well as many of the most exciting new treatments that are emerging for conditions such as cancer and autoimmune disease.

The additional exclusivity terms in H.R. 5629 will allow drug companies to keep the price of medicines high by delaying the onset of the generic competition that makes medicines affordable to most people. For example, generic competition has in recent years brought the cost of HIV/AIDS treatment from $15,000 per patient per year to $99 today, making the treatment of millions in developing countries possible. The current cost of brand biologics puts them out of the reach of many. For example, daclizumab, a biologic drug used to prevent organ transplant rejection, costs around $6,300 for a single course of therapy. UAEM argues that universities, as non-profit institutions with a mission to advance knowledge for the global public good, should not take a position that increases the commercial returns on biologic drugs at the expense of access.

Ethan Guillen, Executive Director of UAEM, said, “There is obviously a need for a pathway for generic biologics but this is not it. The AAU needs to explain why nonprofit universities think the desperately poor around the world, not to mention American consumers, should have to wait over a decade to be able to buy affordable, life-saving generic vaccines.” (more…)

If you are a Yale alum who heard about UAEM through President Clinton’s speech, you can help make President Clinton’s vision a reality. Alumni are incredibly important to Yale University; please call on Yale to be a leader on access to medicines issues. Specifically…

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Presidential Candidates Pledge Support for Fighting Neglected Diseases

Barack Obama Builds Upon Support for Making Low-Cost Medicines Available in Developing Countries

Berkeley, CA – At the Clinton Global Initiative Thursday, United States presidential candidates Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama highlighted the importance fighting neglected diseases in developing countries. Obama in particular signaled the importance of access to medicines and his campaign released a statement saying that as president, he will “ensure that medications for malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis and neglected tropical diseases developed with U.S. taxpayer dollars are available at low costs in developing countries.” Ensuring low-cost access to life-saving medicines in developing countries through open licensing and patenting strategies is a key goal for Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM).

The statement expanded on Obama’s previous support for “the adoption of humanitarian licensing policies that ensure medications developed with U.S. taxpayer dollars are available off-patent in developing countries.” It reinforced the Democratic Party’s similar embrace of off-patent availability in its national platform.

Making publicly-funded medicines available off-patent can allow the makers of generic pharmaceutical companies to produce and sell drugs in developing countries. This approach represents little to no loss for companies as the patented medicines are too expensive for those in developing countries to purchase. Universities, which are responsible for much of the basic research that makes new drugs possible, have tremendous power to insist upon open licenses that will ensure that their research benefits the public interest. (more…)

Rachel Kiddell-Monroe, chair of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, today calls on the World Trade Organization to urgently review its August 30th Decision and quickly provide a workable model to address the access to medicines crisis in developing countries.

On August 30, 2003, the World Trade Organization issued a Decision allowing countries to produce generic versions of patented drugs provided they are destined only for developing countries. In 2004, Canada passed legislation to implement the WTO Decision. Five years later, Apo-TriAvir, a triple fixed dose AIDS drug was shipped yesterday from Toronto and is scheduled to arrive in Rwanda shortly. There are no other drugs or orders using this mechanism on the horizon.

The Canadian story is representative. It highlights one of the major impediments to successful implementation of the WTO Decision: the complexity of the legislation that results. “The legislation is simply too complex and neither developing countries nor generic manufacturers are interested in using it,” says Rachel Kiddell-Monroe, who is speaking today at a workshop convened by Médecins Sans Frontières at the WTO Public Forum in Geneva, Switzerland. The theme of the Workshop is “Five Years from Decision to Action: Is the August 30, 2003 decision ‘the expeditious’ solution for access to medicines we need?” (more…)

Lewis’s longstanding commitment to humanitarian work and, in particular, his efforts in combating the AIDS epidemic, was recognized by TIME Magazine in 2005 when he was named among the World’s 100 Most Influential People. In addition to his work with AIDS-Free World, Mr. Lewis is a Professor in Global Health at McMaster University and he serves as chair of the board of the Stephen Lewis Foundation in Canada.

Among several senior UN roles that spanned over two decades, Mr. Lewis was the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, and Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations.

The UAEM National Conference trains new members and provides a forum for a diverse array of students to discuss access to medicines issues and strategize for the upcoming school year. The UAEM National Conference draws student leaders not only from undergraduate colleges, but also from the schools of law, medicine, business, government, public health and graduate studies at the top research institutions across the country. Last year’s conference at Harvard brought together 320 students from 50 campuses across the United States, Canada, and the UK.

Berkeley is a key center for this progress, and therefore a strategic venue for this year’s conference. Berkeley was the first major research university to announce a specific “socially responsible licensing” program, and continues to be an advocate for improved university licensing practices. The 2008 Conference will provide an opportunity to support and reinforce the work of UAEM’s allies on campus.

The Conference will also provide a critical rallying point for UAEM’s larger developing campaign statewide. UAEM students at UC campuses have attended and spoken at three recent Board of Regents meetings for the University of California system, and are planning further coordinated interventions for the coming year. 



For Conference registration and more information visit http://www.essentialmedicine.org/fall-conference/.