UNIVERSITY COALITIONS for GLOBAL HEALTH

Please help out our friends at Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM)
and take action for access to medicines today! ~Stephanie

Hello Global Health Partners,

As many of you may know, next week will be the final round of negotiations at the World Health Organization Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property. These negotiations are critical as they are the one place where health advocates and developing countries are really being heard in a part of the access to medicines debate that has normally taken place at the WTO and produced such disastrous agreements as TRIPS.

Unfortunately, the Association of University Technology Mangers (AUTM), the group of university officials who manage university patents, are taking the line of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and PhRMA. AUTM has asked its members to sign onto a letter authored by an anti-access think tank, the Institute for Policy Innovation (you can read more about the disastrous policies they support at their web site http://www.ipi.org/).

It is reprehensible that AUTM would take such a position in asking its members to sign on. Furthermore, AUTM had a representative at the last round of negotiations on the BIO delegation and will likely do so again. BIO and PhRMA/IFPMA have worked feverishly to undermine the negotiations.

If you can, we’d appreciate if you and your members could join UAEM in a call in to the office of AUTM’s president, Jon Soderstrom of Yale University.

Call AUTM’s President to tell him AUTM’s Actions are Unacceptable

On Thursday, call John Soderstrom, the current president of AUTM, at his office at Yale to let him know that the steps AUTM has taken in endorsing this letter are unacceptable.

His office at Yale is the Office of Cooperative Research. When the receptionist answers, ask to speak to him. If they don’t pass you to him, ask to speak to someone or leave a message from the script below.

Office of Cooperative Research Phone Number: (203) 436-8096
Fax a letter signed by you based on the script to: (203) 436-8086

Call Script

“(Enter here: my name is and/or I am a student/researcher/citizen) I’m calling to voice my concern over the recent actions taken by the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM). I understand that AUTM is urging university technology transfer officers to sign a lobbying letter against measures aimed at expanding access to medicines in developing countries.

[This letter is to be published in major newspapers and it is aimed against the World Heath Organization’s Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property.]

This letter is against proposals that would help hundreds of millions of patients all over the world.

As the voice of technology transfer officers at educational institutions, who claim to operate for the public good, we call on John Soderstrom as president of AUTM to:

-Retract AUTM’s support of this letter, which is harmful and counterproductive to solving the access to medicines problem, one of the major global issues of our time.
-Take real action to improve access to medicines coming out of universities. AUTM should adopt concrete, effective, transparent policies to ensure access to university research in the developing world.

Thank you.”

Please let me know what you think and thank you,

Ethan Guillen
Executive Director
Universities Allied for Essential Medicines

Jordan Sloshower, Research Coordinator in Family Medicine at the University of Manitoba, Canada, tells us about his university’s involvement in the UCGH Week of Action. He also reflects on the reasons for the increasing interest in global health -Stephanie

During the week of March 24, 2008, the University of Manitoba played host to a lecture series on topics related to “Global Health”. This event was part of a larger “Global Health Week of Action” organized by Universities Coalitions for Global Health (UCGH)-a network of international health-focused organizations and individuals with a university presence.

The overarching goal of this international campaign was to bring together medical, graduate and undergraduate students to advocate for the right to health for populations that are underserved by drawing attention to a host of pressing issues, including gender inequality, HIV/AIDS, access to clean water, sanitation and essential medicines, and the global healthcare worker shortage.

Here at the University of Manitoba, lecturers spoke about their groundbreaking work in the field of infectious disease, about HIV/AIDS advocacy and activism, and about the relationship between health, politics and culture. In the lecture series’ keynote address, Professor Emeritus Dr Alan Ronald outlined his experience with the university’s global health initiatives in Kenya, Uganda and India and provided advice for students in health disciplines who wish to “change the world” through their life’s work. As this lecture series coincidentally overlapped with the launch of The University of Manitoba’s Alan Klass Memorial Program for Health Equity and the publication of a two-day report in The Winnipeg Free Press on HIV/AIDS prevention programs in India set up by Manitoba-based researchers and physicians, (1) the question arises, why there is so much interest and activity in the field of global health and health equity?

Part of the answer to this question surely lies in the fact that the search for solutions to global health problems presents unique challenges (and funding opportunities) to researchers who attempt to apply science and technology to the improvement of the human condition. However, an equally significant reason for the recent surge of interest amongst the public and academics worldwide is that achieving global health equity, or fairness in basic health care measures for rich and poor alike, is not just a scientific problem, but also a cultural, political and economic problem deeply rooted in rapidly changing social structures. In other words, the issues raised by the field of global health probe deeper into human consciousness, as they call into question the way we organize our affairs in society and raise ethical questions about our actions in an increasingly interconnected world.

The aforementioned report in the Winnipeg Free Press is illustrative of this point. Rather than focusing on Dr Stephen Moses’ groundbreaking scientific research on the effectiveness of male circumcision in preventing the spread of HIV, the report assumed a more humanistic perspective. By examining the sex-trade in India, the report outlined how underlying social structures and cultural norms on gender roles become embodied as disease in female sex-workers. In so doing, this article effectively conveyed the anthropological observation that “AIDS is a socio-cultural and political-economic phenomenon with biological manifestations.” (2) As a result, preventing HIV/AIDS is not just a problem for medical doctors, but is a complex initiative requiring collaboration between health workers, politicians, development workers, community leaders and ordinary people. The need for such an interdisciplinary approach speaks to the underlying reality that the problems afflicting the health of populations worldwide are symptoms of a web of social, political and economic pathologies that constitute social injustice. Hopefully, the growing interest in global health reflects the realization that assaults against human dignity should not only attract the interest of inquisitive scientists and researchers but should compel all constituents of global civil society into concerted pragmatic action. Jordan Sloshower: sloshowe@cc.umanitoba.ca

References

(1) Skeritt J. Where HIV flourishes:India’s culture makes AIDS campaign an uphill battle. The Winnipeg Free Press 2008 Mar 22. Available from:URL: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/special/aidsindia/story/4147383p-4737039c.html

(2) Marshall W. AIDS, race and the limits of science. Soc Sci Med 2005;60(11):2515-2525.

University scientists are major contributors in the drug development pipeline. In 2000, a United States Senate report noted that 15 of the 21 drugs considered by experts to have the greatest therapeutic impact on society were developed using research funded by the United States government. Approximately 25% of all drugs classified as “[d]rugs used in the treatment of HIV infections” by the United States FDA include a university or hospital-held patent (35.7% for 2001-2006). In the United States, most government-funded research occurs at universities and is paid for with tax payer’s dollars. Universities, as nonprofit institutions, have committed to engaging in research that benefits the public interest.

Research universities have an opportunity to intervene in the access-to-medicines crisis. By virtue of their upstream contribution to the drug development pipeline universities have considerable untapped influence. Both the number of patents held and the number of license agreements executed by universities more than doubled between 1991 and 2005.

Students across the U.S. have been demanding their university boards to intervene in the crisis. When a university licenses a promising new drug element to a pharmaceutical company, students hope that the university would require the pharmaceutical company to allow the drug to be made available in counties with public health emergencies at the lowest possible cost. Students are urging their boards to support humanitarian licensing policies in all of their agreements with pharmaceutical companies. This would have virtually no financial impact on the company or university, but could ultimately save millions of lives.

THIS WORK IS MORE IMPORTANT NOW THAN EVER BEFORE

We are at a crucial moment for global health. Constitutional litigation over a life-saving cancer drug has been used to threaten production of affordable medicines in India; in Thailand, Abbott Labs, a multinational pharmaceutical giant, has withdrawn registration of all new medicines as leverage in a struggle over compulsory licensing; and right here at home, Merck faces growing pressure to make its revolutionary cervical cancer vaccine available to women worldwide.

Every one of these struggles involves a university-developed medicine:

In India, the drug at the center of the lawsuit was Gleevec, a lifesaving cancer treatment based on research by scientists at the Oregon Health & Sciences University and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

In Thailand, at least one of the drugs that Abbott is using as political leverage—Zemplar—is based on a patent licensed out of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Merck’s cervical cancer vaccine is based on patents held by Georgetown, the university of Rochester, and the University of Queensland in Australia.

For more information check out http://www.essentialmedicine.org/

Student Training Calls: March 13th at 9pm (EST) & March 14th at 12pm (EST)
Call in Number 1-888-296-6500 Code: 130039
Learn more about the week of action toolkit and speak directly with the UCGH national coordinators!

Check out the Week of Action and download the toolkit online

Global Health Week of Action 2008
The Many Sides of the Right to Health

WHAT: The member organizations of the University Coalitions for Global Health (UCGH) have come together again in the spirit of partnership to hold the 1st even Global Health Week of Action where we hope to bring together med, grad and undergrad students to advocate for the right to health for populations that are under served or where it is outright ignored by the governments responsible for their welfare. We will bring attention to the right to health by focusing on the following issues:
• Access to Clean Water
• Women and AIDS
• HIV and Malaria
• Access to Medicines and the Role of Universities
• Global Health Care Worker Shortage

Check out the Week of Action and download the toolkit online

This year’s activities include:
• Implementation of an Issue=specific toolkit created by the national coordinators of UCGH
• Online chats with Global Health Experts
• Student planning and advocacy training conference calls

WHEN: March 22nd-March 30th 2008 On your Campus!
Student Training Calls: March 13th at 9pm (EST) & March 14th at 12pm (EST)
Call in Number 1-888-296-6500 Code: 130039
Learn more about the week of action toolkit and speak directly with the UCGH national coordinators!

Contact: your national coordinator or sdevita@globalhealth.org to find out more!!!

Check out the Week of Action and download the toolkit online

Take action with out partners at Advocates for Youth!~Stephanie

Access to EC Denied!

10,000 signatures by March 7!
Help us keep pressure on the FDA!

We are at a pivotal point in the fight to win full access to emergency contraception (EC) for all women, and we need your help!

The Center for Reproductive Rights - a legal advocacy organization that promotes and defends the reproductive rights of women worldwide - recently filed a lawsuit to force the FDA to reverse its decision that restricts young women’s access to Plan B without a prescription.

Today, Advocates for Youth and Choice USA are launching a 10,000 signature petition drive to keep pressure on the FDA. It’s time to make sure that ALL women have access to emergency contraception - not just women 18 and older!

Click here to download the Petition Kit! Collect signatures on your campus and in your community and send them in by fax or mail. We will deliver completed petitions to the FDA later this spring.

Our goal is to obtain 10,000 hard copy signatures by March 7! Together, we can make these three weeks count!

Ask your friends and family to join you in support of unrestricted access to Plan B. Print out a copy of the petition kit and simply mail or fax in the completed petition forms. The more signatures, the stronger we stand!

Download the Petition Kit TODAY! We need your help to pressure the FDA - let’s meet our signature goal by March 7!

Let’s get to work! It’s time to prove to the FDA that all young women deserve equal access to emergency contraception.

Good luck, and let’s get those petitions signed…

Peace,

Mimi Melles

Mimi Melles
Program Coordinator,
Youth Activist Network
Advocates for Youth