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This initiative highlights the role of universities in promoting access to essential medicines worldwide. It focuses on the need for affordable medications, the impact of patent laws on access, and the importance of academic research in developing countries. The goal is to generate awareness, change norms, and empower students to address the access and innovation crisis.
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MIT Universities Allied for Essential Medicines
You bring kindness, and your kindness is good. But it will not cure this AIDS. • I know there is medicine in your country for people like you. But why not here, for people like me?
32% Marketing and administration 25% Profits 30% Operational and material costs 12% R&D Pharmaceutical industry expendituresWorldwide, 1996-2005
Drs. Prusoff and Lin at Yale discovered that d4t (stavudine, Zerit) is active against HIV. D4t became a key first-line antiretroviral. Because Yale licensed d4t exclusively to Bristol Myers Squibb, the company set a monopoly price (too high for poor patients) Flickr/MikeBlyth
Magnum Photos/Francesco Zizola In South Africa, MSF and the Treatment Action Campaign bought low-price, generic d4t to save the lives of the HIV+ poor. The generic d4t was technically illegal, because it infringed on Bristol Myers Squibb’s patent on d4t in South Africa.
Antiretroviral treatment can literally bring a dying patient back to life. Here, Joseph in Haiti, treated by Partners in Health. Before ARV therapy After six months on ARV therapy PIH/David Walton
Bristol Myers Squibb launched a lawsuit for patent infringement against the South African generic company, essentially asserting that it is acceptable to die of a treatable infection so long as you are poor enough.
“The Scientist’s Story” “I once helped create a drug that could enable millions of people to lead better and longer lives…More recently, it became apparent that the drug Dr. Lin and I had developed was not reaching millions of desperately suffering people because they lacked the money to purchase it.” NYTimes Editorial: March 19, 2001 By William Prusoff.
Role of Academic Research Academic patents in 1 in every 5 of the most innovative Rx (FDA priority review) Academic patents in 1 in every 4 HIV Rx. In 44% of cases, universities filed for patent protection in developing world. Sampat, Am J. Pub. H., 2009
Patent Gener-X GlobalAccess Licensing
The New “Scientist’s Story” • Dr. Kishor M. Wasan
Meeting with Harvard’s President Just prior to SPS (October 2009)
The Statement of Principles and Strategies for Equitable Dissemination of Medical Technologies (SPS) is Born Provost and TTO Head reveal plans to develop multi-university agreement Discuss Stakeholder Meeting, Committee on Global Access Licensing with Dean of Public Health Yale Provost agrees to articulate policies Yale monthly OTD meetings Meeting with Harvard President Faculty outreach for Working Group on Licensing Petition to Provost Crimson op-ed exchange Meeting with OTD and CEOs, unfriendly First meeting with OTD, friendly Multi-University Roundtable Say Yes To Drugs Campaign SPS Launched
Mission Statement The mission of MIT is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century. The Institute is committed to generating, disseminating, and preserving knowledge, and to working with others to bring this knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges. MIT is dedicated to providing its students with an education that combines rigorous academic study and the excitement of discovery with the support and intellectual stimulation of a diverse campus community. We seek to develop in each member of the MIT community the ability and passion to work wisely, creatively, and effectively for the betterment of humankind.
Our Vision Universities and publicly funded research institutions will be part of the solution to the access to medicines crisis by promoting medical innovation in the public interest and ensuring that all people regardless of income have access to essential medicines and other health-related technologies. Our Mission As a private non-profit organization rooted in a movement of university students, UAEM aims to - promote access to medicines for people in developing countries by changing norms and practices around university patenting and licensing - ensure that university medical research meets the needs of the majority of the world’s population - empower students to respond to the access and innovation crisis