Contact: Sam Houshower
Email: houshower [at] berkeley [dot] edu

For Immediate Release

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.” Read more »

President Clinton was in New Haven for his 35th law school reunion, and spoke to a large hall of gathered alumni about America’s role in the world, including the importance of UAEM’s work on global health. President Clinton told the crowd: “I like [their work] because that is an example of how we turn good intentions into positive changes.” President Clinton’s comments represent just one of the many high profile endorsements UAEM has recently received–including nine Nobel Laureates and dozens of leaders in the fields of science, medicine, public health, law, and economics.

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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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Anjali Dalal
Monday, Sept 29, 2008
anjali [dot] dalal [at] yale [dot] edu

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. Read more »

25 September 2008, Berkeley, California.

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?” Read more »