National

UAEM names Ethan Guillén as Executive Director
Experienced organizer to drive university campaign for access to essential medicines

NEW HAVEN, CT.

Global Access to Medicines Day is coming up on March 30th, 2009. We'd once again like to invite you to participate in our unified spring action to raise awareness of the dire need for universities to implement global access licensing and this year's focus on educating the scientists who actually make the discoveries.

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."

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.

UAEM will be hosting a reception and fundraiser in Washington, DC on Wednesday July 30th. There will be live music and great company. We hope you can join us. Tickets and details are available here.

April 28, 2008
Contact: Ethan Guillen, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines
ethan.guillen@essentialmedicine.org

Eminent Academics: IGWG Delegates Should Explore New Mechanisms to Correct Current Deficiencies in Medicine System

Today eminent academics including Nobel laureates Joseph Stiglitz and Sir John Sulston and Dr. Jim Kim of Partners in Health and Harvard University called on World Health Organization delegates to the Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property to consider innovative mechanisms to correct current deficiencies in the access and innovation system.

Speaking of proposals currently under discussion at the IGWG in a joint statement titled, "Making Innovation and Tech Transfer Work for Global Health: The University's Role and Responsibility to Society," the signatories wrote:

"These proposals include a treaty on bio-medical R&D and new incentive mechanisms for R&D that would use prizes as incentives for research (including both voluntary open licensing or non-voluntary mechanisms). These ideas, while varied and plausibly contestable in their details, all fall well within the types of solutions that are the result of significant research on the economics of innovation and access."

The statement also calls on delegates to the IGWG negotiation to consider new solutions to current deficiencies in the drug development and access system stating, "[W]e encourage the Intergovernmental Working Group to support the exploration of new and innovative mechanisms that seek to correct the deficiencies of the current system."

Universities Allied for Essential Medicines joins in this call and in particular would urge consideration of the Barbados and Bolivian proposals on prize funds and the R&D treaty.

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The full statement and list of signatories is below.

This morning, the World Health Organization Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (IGWG) resumed its negotiations in Geneva. UAEM is represented by Ethan Guillen, Executive Director, and Sara Crager, a UAEM member and MD/PhD from Yale University. Throughout the week we will be posting regarding the goings on.

The IGWG is working on a Global Strategy and Plan of Action to tackle issues of R&D for neglected diseases and access to medicines.

Below is the statement sent out on Friday April 25 by AUTM President and Yale administrator Jon Soderstrom apologizing for a "miscommunication" regarding AUTM's apparent stance in support of signing onto an IPI letter in advance of recommencement of negotiations at the World Health Organization Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property. Soderstrom initially confirmed support of the stances taken in the letter in statements made in an Inside Higher Ed report (see link below). But in response to actions taken by UAEM, KEI, MSF and members of the academic community urging AUTM to retract its support of signing onto an IPI letter, Soderstrom took the positive step of issuing the clarification quoted below.

Open Letter to AUTM Members

Dear Technology Transfer Officer:

The Association of University Technology Managers has this week called on you to join the organization in standing in the way of progress at the World Health Organization Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (IGWG). AUTM is opposing the exploration of innovative mechanisms that could improve our broken global health system. Although AUTM believes that we have a “very successful system of innovation and tech transfer,” this system is clearly not succeeding for the hundreds of millions of poor people suffering and dying because of policies that impede both innovation for neglected diseases, as well as access to medicines and health interventions.

An Op-Ed written by UAEM’s Executive Director Ethan Guillen and Board President Rachel Kiddell-Monroe, was published in the Boston Globe immediately following the fall conference. The Op-Ed called for action by Boston - based schools such as Harvard and MIT, and highlighted the need for the University of Wisconsin to ensure that a life-saving medication developed on campus was not being held hostage from patients in Thailand.