[Ip-health] UAEM OpEd on Thailand, Abbott and role of universities appears in The Boston Globe, October 3, 2007

[Rachel Kiddell-Monroe]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
ETHAN GUILLEN AND RACHEL KIDDELL-MONROE
Research universities must act

By Ethan Guillen and Rachel Kiddell-Monroe  |  October 3, 2007

AS HARVARD'S new president takes the helm, over 300 students from the United
States, Canada, and the United Kingdom converged on the university last
weekend for the fourth annual conference of Universities Allied for
Essential Medicines. UAEM leads an international student movement to make
the fruits of university research - in particular, lifesaving medications
developed in university labs - available in developing countries. The
convergence of UAEM's growing movement in Cambridge has presented a moment
of opportunity - and imperative - for Boston's universities.

In her address to the parents of the Class of 2011, the first class over
which she will preside, Harvard President Drew Faust reminded us that
universities are unique because of their "missions of public service."

"The research university," she said, "is a strange hybrid of free thought
and worldly utility, pursuing knowledge for its own sake, and at the same
time advancing knowledge for the public good."

Last spring, Harvard joined eight other leading universities in a statement
of principles, proclaiming, in a similar voice, that "in no field is the
importance [of universities' special role] clearer than it is in medicine."
The statement acknowledged that universities therefore have a
"responsibility" to help ensure that university-developed medicines are
available "globally, at sustainable and affordable prices, for the benefit
of the world's poor."

But, as one of Harvard's peer universities has demonstrated, words are not
enough. In Thailand, people are being denied life-saving treatment because
Abbott Laboratories has withdrawn its medicines from the Thai market. The
government is facing a massive health crisis as a result of HIV/AIDS, yet it
cannot afford to pay the very high prices of HIV/AIDS medicines being
charged by some brand-name pharmaceutical companies. It decided, in the
interests of its own people, to exercise its legal right to allow Thai
generic companies to produce reasonably priced medications for Thai HIV/AIDS
patients. Abbott struck back at the Thai patients themselves. The move has
been condemned by Doctors without Borders, Bill Clinton, and many others.

Critically, among the seven drugs that Abbott withdrew is Zemplar, a
life-saving kidney medication developed by scientists at the University of
Wisconsin. Students at Wisconsin approached their university about the
disconnect between Abbott's behavior and the principles that Wisconsin
embraced in last year's statement, about how it expected its discoveries to
be deployed. The licensing office associated with the university
replied: "Abbott
Laboratories is a good friend of [Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation] and
the university, particularly in the hiring of UW graduates. . . . We trust
that Abbott Laboratories is committed to doing its part to meet the health
needs of people around the world, including Thailand. We support Abbott in
that commitment."

What has become of the special role of universities? Unfortunately, as
Wisconsin has shown this year, mere statements of principle and words on
paper are not enough. It is time for universities to act on their promises.

Most university medical research is funded with taxpayer money. The
medicines our scientists discover should benefit the people who need them.
Last year in Philadelphia, UAEM students launched the "Philadelphia
Consensus Statement," signed by thousands, including eminent scholars, Nobel
laureates, activists, and university students around the world. The
statement called on universities to include explicit access provisions in
the agreements those universities make with pharmaceutical companies,
governing the use of the university patent on the medical discovery. Such
provisions would allow generic drug companies to produce low-cost versions
of university-discovered drugs as long as they were destined only for the
developing world.

The UAEM student leaders meeting in Harvard last weekend called on their
universities to act urgently to give teeth to their promises. The University
of Wisconsin must demand that Abbott reinstates Zemplar on the Thai market,
along with the other essential medicines. Universities must honor their
social role by joining the movement to ensure that patients worldwide have
access to the life-saving drugs that have been funded by the American public
and discovered by American scientists working in American universities.
Harvard and MIT should commit to leading the way in turning the promises of
their commitment from words into action.

*Rachel Kiddell-Monroe **is the board president and* *Ethan Guillen **is the
executive director of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines.*
 (c) Copyright <http://www.boston.com/help/bostoncom_info/copyright> 2007 The
New York Times Company



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Rachel Kiddell-Monroe
President of the Board
Universities Allied for Essential Medicines
Tel: 514 481 1186