Universities Allied for
Essential Medicines
Clara Matthiessen/Aaron Vogt
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Universities Allied for Essential
Medicines (UAEM)
•International,
interdisciplinary student
organisation
•Founded in 2001 at
Yale University
•USA, Canada,
Germany, UK, Norway,
Denmark, soon
Switzerland
•Access to Lifesaving
Medicine
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Case studies
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Canada
• Patient with high blood
pressure
•Treatment possibilities > 50
• Price 20 – 100 $ /yr
• Easy Access / receive a
prescription from your GP
• Few Adverse Effects
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Southeast Asia
Leishmaniasis (Kala Azar)
• Treatment Possibilities: 5
• Price : $50-500/ 20-30 days
• Adverse Effects:
• Toxic
• Gastrointestinale problems,
fever, fatigue, change in BP,
diabetes...
• Access to the Treatment:
rare
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Medical Patent
Eflorithine
- Produced in 1980.
- The only effective
treatment against
trypanosomiasis (African
Sleeping Sickness).
- Sanofi Aventis had the
patent for Eflorithine.
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1995: No effect seen for
cancer treatments with
Eflorithine
Sanofi Aventis
- Stopped all production
- Still had exclusive rights
for Eflorithine for 5 more
years
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2000: Effect against
unwished hairgrowth
discovered
Sanofi Aventis
- started production of
Vaniqa
- Monopol for this Product
New patent for 20 years
more!
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The Problem
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The Access Gap
Ten million people die needlessly each
year because they do not have access to
existing medicines and vaccines.
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The Research Gap
90% of research goes into only 10% of the global
disease burden. There is no commercial interest in
research on neglected diseases.
[Drugs for Neglected Disease initiative www.dndi.org]
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UAEM History and
Mission
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Our Mission
Access
promote access to medicines and medical innovations
in low- and middle-income countries by changing
norms and practices around academic patenting and
licensing
Innovation
ensure that university medical research meets the
needs of people worldwide
Empowerment
empower students to respond to the access and
innovation crisis
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Our History
40 major research
universities – including Harvard,
Yale and Charité in Berlin – have
committed to license globallyrelevant biomedical research
openly in low- and middleincome countries. This equitable
licensing approach enables
producers to manufacture
affordable versions of new
university-discovered medicines for
neglected populations.
In 2001, Yale
medical and law students
convinced the university
and Bristol-Myers-Squibb to
reduce the price of
Stavudine by 95% in South
Africa.
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UAEMs work
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The Role of Universities in Drug
Development
•Every single vaccine brought to market in the past 25 years has a
contribution from university research. [Ashley Stevens, current President of
AUTM; Access to Medicines panel discussion, Yale University March 25,
2008]
•More than 1/3 of HIV drugs introduced between 2002 and 2006 involve a
university patent.
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Our Work
• Local and national campaigns at universities
• University Administration /TTO
• Political focus National, EU and WHO
• Administration of chapters and working
groups
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We are not alone ...
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”The right to life includes the right to
health and access to treatment”
[Articles 1&25, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations General Assembly 1948.]
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A Chapter in Switzerland
- www.essentialmedicine.org
- lfendel@essentialmedicines.com
- clara.matthiessen@gmail.com
- andrea.mauracher@uzh.ch
- Next German UAEM Meeting: 7th-9th of December in Münster
- Next European UAEM Meeting: April 2013 in Copenhagen
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