The Independent, a UK newspaper, recently published a letter from UAEM UK members on the role of universities and access to medicines. The full text is below and can be accessed online here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/letters-the-true-value-of-gradschool-794747.html

The original article, “Against the grain:’I didn’t become a scientist to help companies profit,’” is available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/against-the-grain-i-didnt-become-a-scientist-to-help-companies-profit-788328.html

ESSENTIAL MEDICINES

Mr Moriarty’s article (Against the grain, EDUCATION & CAREERS, 28 February) raised a number of pertinent issues, notably, what should the objective be of academic, publicly funded science, and whom should it benefit?

Mr Moriarty decries the modus operandi of academic research, whereby the increasing intrusion of the private sector is eroding the founding principles of academic institutions and allowing, in effect, taxpayer subsidisation of corporations and their profits.

This is as, if not more, common in the field of drug development. Universities contribute a significant proportion of basic drug research, which is often sold to private pharmaceutical companies with significant royalties to the university in question. While this process is positive in that it broadens the range of medical therapies available, there is a more pernicious side. Patents are placed on the drugs by universities and pharmaceutical companies, which hampers patients in developing countries from accessing them, as patents raise drugs’ costs and thus price poor patients out of the market.

If universities specified licensing provisions that allowed for generic manufacturing in developing countries, they would lose no source of income while making their innovations more widely accessible. We believe that they should reform their practices so that they are more conducive to global public health.

Jonathan Currie, Mori Mansouri, Rachel Herbert, Gauri Verma, Abi Smith, Marie Williamson, Sophie Epstein, Vasundhara Verma
Universities Allied for Essential Medicines-UK