Times of India Interview with UAEM Director Ethan Guillen

The Times of India

Q&A
'Universities could mandate generic production for poor countries.'Dec 1, 2010
Many drugs with great therapeutic impact, such as Gleevec for cancer, Stavudine for HIV/AIDS, and Zemplar for kidney failure, have come from university medical research. The Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) is a non-profit organisation rooted in a university students' movement to change the norms of patenting and licensing of drugs discovered in universities to ensure their accessibility in developing countries.UAEM executive director Ethan Guillen spoke to Rema Nagarajan about the campaign: 

How did UAEM come into being? 
UAEM was formed in 2001 when AIDS patients were dying because they could not afford the cost of treatment, which was $10,000 annually. One of the medicines needed, Stavudine, cost $1,600 per year. Stavudine had been discovered at Yale University, which held its patent. Initial entreaties to the university and Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) to allow generic production were turned down. So, Medecins Sans Frontieres, which was treating HIV patients in South Africa, mobilised a campaign with students at Yale. Eventually they were able to convince Yale and BMS to allow generic production of Stavudine, which brought down the price to just $55 per year.