universities allied for essential medicines

Institutions such as UCL play a profound role in researching and developing key medicines and public health devices that could be used to improve the health and quality of life of people living in poorer nations. Accessibility to these devices, however, is limited by the licensing and patenting laws of our universities. We believe that universities have a responsibility to improve access to public health devices for poorer nations.

UAEM was started in 2001 in America by law students at Yale university and has been expanding in influence and achievement ever since. There are now branches all over the UK, in Germany, Sweden and Rwanda. You can read more about UAEM, the aims and origins, in our library section. Visit their website here.

The UCL Student human rights Programme was formed in 2007 with financial backing from UCL to promote human rights awareness, discussion and action. It aims to achieve these objectives through the UCL Human Rights Review, UCL Human Rights Bulletin, the UCLHRP Intervention Action Team and regular human rights lectures, panel discussions, workshops, moots and debates. Now the UCLSHRP plan to tackle human rights and Intellectual property rights with Medsin UCL. You can read more about them at www.uclshrp.com.

A branch of UAEM was set up at UCL in 2008 by a dedicated group of students from a wide range of backgrounds. They focused on research and building links while expanding student and academic support though events, talks and publications. In 2009 two motions were passed though the student union; one supporting the campaign and one urging transparency from our university about their patents and research, which can be found here.

The UAEM campaign is working with our university to achieve access to the products of our research. We urge students to sign the Philadelphia Consensus Statement (http://consensus.essentialmedicine.org/), which calls for three changes:

• Equal access to research.
• Research and development for neglected diseases.
• Measure research success according to impact on human welfare.

This campaign is more complex than most; it will not just be focused around health, but also law. We would encourage any student with a keen and committed interest in this issue to let us know! To get involved with this campaign, please email uaem.ucl@gmail.com and with your name and contact details.

last updated : march 20th 2010