Universities Allied for Essential Medicines National symposium

Date of Event: 19/11/11Time of Event: 10AMVenue: Imperial College London

This is the 2 day long national UAEM meeting/symposium. The first day will be mainly introductory for new members (so no experience needed) while the second day will consist mainly of planning for the year and discussions about UAEM. There will also be notable speakers on several topics. The event is free, and there will be a social on the Saturday night. Contact uaem.ucl@gmail.com for more information. To register for the event follow this link http://uaemukmeet2011.eventbrite.co.uk/?ebtv=F

Universities Allied for Essential Medicine Meeting

Date of Event: 15/11/11Time of Event: 6PMVenue: G40 Medical Sciences

This is UAEM's second meeting of the term, new members are still welcome of course.
A rough agenda is:
10 minutes talk on a UAEM related topic
Re-run of last weeks session
Chat about UAEM mag launch event
News from last week
Any other business

Universities Allied for Essential Medicine Introductions all this week!

Date of Event: 31/10/11Time of Event: 6PM ishVenue: Depends on the day - see list

Campaigning and Advocacy is one of the best ways to impact global health as a student. Everyday this week we will be running short 20-30 minutes sessions to introduce the campaign "Universities Allied for Essential Medicines". You don't need to know anything about us or the topic in general, just come along and see what you think. If you want to check us out beforehand there is information about us on this website under the campaigns section. Being a part of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines is great way to make an impact and this is the perfect place to start.

Any questions? Email uaem.ucl@gmail.com

Full list of dates;
31/11 6pm in Kathleen Kenyon 204 (Lewis building)
1/11 6pm in Kathleen Kenyon 204 (Lewis building)
2/11 6pm in G40 (Medical Sciences building)
3/11 6pm in G40 (Medical Sciences building)
4/11 6pm in Room 105 in the CSC (1st floor of the Bloomsbury building)

The UAEM Petition

The UAEM campaign here at UCL has started a petition to encourage our University to improve accesss to essential medicines.

We have produced a statement concerning the medicines and medical technologies produced at UCL and their use in lower and middle income countries. We're appealing for people to read our statement and support it by putting their name to it.

We need YOUR help to make a difference! It takes only 2 minutes of your time.

Click here to read the statement and support us.

Patent Pool Flash Mob on World AIDS Day

Date of Event: 01/12/10Time of Event: 2:00 PMVenue: Trafalgar Square

We are the Imperial College London Universities Allied for Essential Medicine (UAEM) chapter, and we are organising a flash mob in Trafalgar Square for World AIDS Day.

As you probably know, there are many HIV antiretroviral drugs available for the treatment of AIDS which dramatically increase life expectancy and quality. Yet thousands die every year because they do not have access to these drugs for the simple and terrible reason that they are too expensive. The universities that develop them and the pharmaceutical companies that produce them set extortionate prices, making the
pharmaceutical industry one of the most lucrative businesses out there.

This is unacceptable. Drugs should be for people, not for profit.

We NEED the patents for these drugs to be placed in the patent pool where they will be available to people in developing countries at dramatically reduced prices. We NEED to put pressure on the pharmaceutical companies
and universities so they can follow this simple initiative. And no, this won't be the end of the pharmaceutical companies, as they'll still be able to continue raking in the profits from the Western world.

Our plan: to have AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE jump into the Trafalgar Square fountains, dressed in the symbolic red. The idea is that we are the patents for the lifesaving HIV ARVs, jumping into the patent pool where they belong.

If we can assemble enough people to attract the attention of the media and the public, we can get these issues out in the open and begin to change university and pharmaceutical policies. We could literally save thousands of lives just by jumping into a fountain.

Our main issue: numbers. If we are to have the desired impact, we need to be there in the thousands. This is where you come in. We need you to spread the message, whether that's via twitter, facebook, mailing lists,
telepathy, we don't mind! Tell your student unions, year reps, departmental reps, student newspaper etc. We're counting on you tell everyone in your university. Once we get enough people, we'll hopefully be
able to get the media involved, and generate a huge amount of awareness for this incredibly important campaign.


Facebook event page:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=161253107245021&num_event_invites=0#!/event.php?eid=161253107245021


Please get in touch if you have any questions; we'd love to hear from you!

Thanks,

UAEM Imperial

Next UAEM Meeting

Date of Event: 25/11/10Time of Event: 5:00 PMVenue: Rockefeller 336

The Next Meeting is fast approaching this Thursday at 5pm in Rockefeller 336.
It would be great to see as many of you as can make it!

UK Government Supports the UNITAID Patent Pool

Stephen O'Brien (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, International Development; Eddisbury, Conservative)

I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman's question. The Government definitely support the UNITAID patent pool, which is, as he knows, a mechanism to facilitate the development of new, particularly fixed-dose combination drugs, partly to ward off the danger of monotherapies. That can be a key means of addressing the treatment challenge. We welcome UNITAID's decision to create a separate foundation to manage the pool's activities, and we recognise that that is an important step. We now need the milestones to be put in place as rapidly as possible, so that we can convert it to a working programme going forward.

More details here: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2010-11-17a.870.3&s=stephen+o%

First UAEM Meeting

Date of Event: 21/10/10Time of Event: 5:00 PMVenue: Rockefeller room 335, University Street

The first UAEM meeting of the year will be this Thursday.
I'll be explaing what UAEM does at UCL and what the plan is for the coming year.
Everyone is welcome to come along, whether you're interested in getting involved or just finding out more.
Hope to see you there!
Beth

Medsin Film Series: Invisibles

Date: 23/02/2010Time: 7pmVenue: Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre

As part of Medsin's film series on Tuesday the 16th of Feburary we will be showing the Médecins Sans Frontières film Invisibles in the Gustave Tuck Lecture theatre at 7pm.

"Five renowned directors came together to create Invisibles, to give a voice to real-life victims of five of the most neglected crises across the planet. The film recently won a Spanish Goya award for best documentary."

This screening is organised by the Access to Essential Medicines campaign at UCL (UAEM) and admission, drinks and snacks are free. Check out the facebook event here.