STUDENTS CONVERGE ON UC BERKELEY FOR GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON ACCESS TO MEDICINES

Contact: Anjali Dalal
Email: anjali [dot] dalal [at] yale [dot] edu

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/.

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About UAEM
Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) is a coalition of students at over 40 top research institutions across the United States, Canada and United Kingdom. UAEM's mission is to ensure that people in developing countries have access to medicines developed in universities and that university medical research addresses to the needs of the majority of the world's population. As an organization which values innovation, we work to empower students to find new ways to improve access to health throughout the world.