Universities Allied for Essential Medecines

Movement to spread public health goods to developing countries through openness.

URL = http://www.essentialmedicine.org/

Description

"Many of the world's most important medicines and public health devices are wholly or partly developed in academic laboratories. Their accessibility to those living in poor nations is profoundly affected by the research, licensing and patenting decisions made by universities.

As members of these institutions of higher learning, we believe that universities have an opportunity and a responsibility to improve global access to public health goods--particularly those they have helped develop." (http://www.essentialmedicine.org/)

The Philadelphia Consensus Statement

See the Philadelphia Consensus Statement at http://consensus.essentialmedicine.org/

The Philadelphia Consensus Statement proposes three major changes to university policies on health-related innovations. Universities should:

• Promote equal access to research.

• Promote research and development for neglected diseases.

• Measure research success according to impact on human welfare.

These changes could literally save millions of lives.

EQUAL ACCESS

Universities are key developers of drugs, vaccines and diagnostics. They can leverage their intellectual property on these innovations to ensure low-cost access in the developing world.

Mechanisms proposed to ensure access include: granting rights to generic companies to manufacture and export university innovations to developing countries, price reductions, non-patenting requirements in low- and middle-income countries, and participation in patent pools.

RESEARCH FOR NEGLECTED DISEASES

Neglected diseases are those for which treatment options are inadequate or do not exist and for which drug-market potential is insufficient to attract a private-sector response.

Universities can adopt policies that remove barriers to neglected diseases R&D. Proposed policy changes include: engaging with nontraditional partners, such as public-private partnerships or developing country institutions, creating new opportunities for drug development, and carving out neglected disease research exemptions in any university patents or licenses.

MEASURING RESEARCH SUCCESS BY IMPACT ON HUMAN WELFARE

University technology transfer operations are usually evaluated using simple, quantifiable criteria such as patents applied for and received, licenses granted, and licensing revenue generated. Therefore, the positive social impact of university innovations—particularly in poor countries—goes largely unnoticed.

Universities can rectify this situation by collecting and making public statistics on university intellectual property practices related to global health access and collaborating to develop new technology transfer metrics to better gauge access to public health goods and innovation in neglected-disease research.

Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM; www.essentialmedicine.org) adopted the Philadelphia Consensus Statement at their annual conference held in Philadelphia at the beginning of October, 2006.