BIG VICTORY: 6 Universities, AUTM and NIH agree to access principles
Project:
After years of UAEM campaigning, 6 universities, AUTM and NIH have agreed to access principles for licensing and patenting. While we are enthusiastic about the adoption of these principles and while the authors deserve praise for taking this important step, the document has important shortcomings, noted below. UAEM sees this document as a floor for future policies rather than a ceiling and we hope that other universities will go further still. We look forward to working with signatories to the document to ensure effective implementation and improvements in the months and years to come.
Congratulations to the amazing activism over the years that made this win possible.
Read the UAEM press release below.
Read news coverage of the policy on:
- Bloomberg News
- IP-Watch
- Chronicle of Higher Education
- Yale Daily News
- Pharmalot
- Chemical and Engineering News
Contact: Ady Barkan (adybarkan [at] gmail [dot] com)
UAEM Welcomes University Action to Improve Access to Medicines, Draws Attention to Important Shortcomings in University-Adopted Principles
Yesterday, Boston University, Brown, Harvard, the Oregon Health and Science University, the University of Pennsylvania, Yale and AUTM released a public document entitled “Statement of Principles and Strategies for the Equitable Dissemination of Medical Technologies” (available at http://www.autm.net/endorse).
In response, the student organization Universities Allied for Essential Medicine (UAEM) released the following statement:
UAEM welcomes the Statement of Principles and Strategies published yesterday. UAEM has worked intensively with universities on access licensing since 2001, and we commend each of the six universities and the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) for their commitment to the principles laid out in this document.
The Statement of Principles includes a number of important developments, including commitments to not patenting in developing countries, to investing in research and development on diseases that impact poor countries, to developing public metrics that measure the global health impact of university policies, and to revisiting and revising the principles document biennially.
“This is a meaningful, important development and those who worked on the principles deserve praise for moving the ball down the field,” said Ethan Guillen, executive director of UAEM. “But there are also some critical shortcomings and ambiguity in the document that need to be resolved. We look forward to working with universities as they continue to strengthen and improve their policies.”
The Statement of Principles does not go far enough in important ways. First, it is unclear whether the Statement of Principles will ensure access to medicines for the poor in India, China, and Brazil. Over 60% of the world’s poor people live in these countries, and universities cannot be true to their public missions if their policies fail to facilitate low-cost access to medical technologies there. This ambiguity also leaves unclear the ability of generic manufacturers in these critical countries to produce medicines for countries without manufacturing capacity if patents are secured in India, China, or Brazil. Second, the Statement of Principles does not adequately emphasize the important role that generic competition plays in reducing the price of drugs, and thus enhancing access: history has shown drug donation schemes and at-cost provisions to be far less effective at creating access than generic competition. UAEM will prepare a full analysis of the document in the coming weeks.
UAEM looks forward to working with the six universities, AUTM, and all future signatories to strengthen this document in the months and years to come.
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Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) is a coalition of students at over 50 top research institutions across the United States, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom. UAEM’s mission is to promote access to medicines for people in developing countries by changing norms and practices around university patenting and licensing, ensuring that university medical research meets the needs of the majority of the world’s population and by empowering students to respond to the access and innovation crisis.
