[Ip-health] UAEM Calls on AUTM to Retract Support of IPI Statement in Advance of IGWG

[Ethan Guillen]

In advance of the next round of negotiations at the World Health
Organization Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health, Innovation
and Intellectual Property, as many of you know, AUTM has aligned itself wit=
h
an anti-access think tank, the Institute for Policy Innovation, in opposing
the exploration of new mechanisms to improve upon our broken global health
system that denies medicines to hundreds of millions of people.

Universities Allied for Essential Medicines has called on AUTM (see below)
to retract its support and are in the process of contacting individual TTOs
to ask them to not sign on to the letter circulated by IPI.  Our Yale
chapter is contacting Soderstrom directly as well.

You can read our press release at our web site:
http://www.essentialmedicine.org/university-officials-fight-innovative-meas=
u
res-to-increase-access-to-medicine/

Ethan Guillen
Universities Allied for Essential Medicines
955 Massachusetts Ave, #110
Cambridge, MA 02139
T: 775-287-2553

About UAEM: Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, a coalition of
hundreds of students at top research institutions across the United States,
Canada and the United Kingdom. We seek to make medicines accessible to
patients in developing countries and increase research on neglected disease=
s
by taking advantage of the important role of universities in medical
research and the unique position of students to advocate for change.


------ Forwarded Message
From: Ethan Guillen <ethan.guillen@essentialmedicine.org>
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:14:09 -0700
To: <jon.soderstrom@yale.edu>, <pradhana@ohsu.edu>,
<pljones@ott.arizona.edu>, <lee.heiman@stanfordalumni.org>,
<brian.p.laden@vanderbilt.edu>, <flanigan@uottawa.ca>,
<mdilling@bcm.tmc.edu>, <kirsten.leute@stanford.edu>,
<imma.barrera@caliperls.com>, <fred.reinhart@wayne.edu>, <pliu@nccu.edu.tw>=
,
<macwright@virginia.edu>, <jmuir@ufl.edu>, <janna.tom@ucop.edu>,
<k.cullen@enterprise.gla.ac.uk>, <mwhite@salk.edu>
Cc: <richard.levin@yale.edu>
Subject: Call to Retract Support of IPI Statement

President Soderstrom and AUTM Board of Trustees:

I am writing on behalf of the members of Universities Allied for Essential
Medicines, a coalition of hundreds of students at top research institutions
across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. We seek to make
medicines accessible to patients in developing countries and increase
research on neglected diseases by taking advantage of the important role of
universities in medical research and the unique position of students to
advocate for change.

AUTM's position in support of the Institute for Policy Innovation letter an=
d
its request that members sign on in advance of the next round of
negotiations at the World Health Organization Intergovernmental Working
Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property is
unacceptable.  AUTM has placed itself directly at odds with an important
process that is vital to the poor in developing countries who needlessly di=
e
because they lack access to life saving medicines.

We call on AUTM to immediately retract its support of this letter and show
support for the IGWG process.  Furthermore we demand that AUTM take concret=
e
steps to adopt policies regarding the funding and licensing of the fruits o=
f
university research that serve the public good and ensure access alongside
innovation.

Below is an open letter to university technology transfer officers that UAE=
M
is circulating calling on your members to refuse to sign the IPI letter.

We look forward to your constructive response,

Ethan Guillen
Executive Director
Universities Allied for Essential Medicines
955 Massachusetts Ave, #110
Cambridge, MA 02139
www.essentialmedicine.org


************************************************

An Open Letter to AUTM Members


Dear Technology Transfer Officer:

The Association of University Technology Managers has this week called on
you to join the organization in standing in the way of progress at the Worl=
d
Health Organization Intergovernmental Working Group on Public Health,
Innovation and Intellectual Property (IGWG).  AUTM is opposing the
exploration of innovative mechanisms that could improve our broken global
health system. Although AUTM believes that we have a =B3very successful sys=
tem
of innovation and tech transfer,=B2 this system is clearly not succeeding f=
or
the hundreds of millions of poor people suffering and dying because of
policies that impede both innovation for neglected diseases, as well as
access to medicines and health interventions.

As a member of AUTM, your office has been asked to sign onto a letter being
circulated by the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI), an anti-access
think tank whose message mirrors that of Pharmaceutical Research and
Manufacturing of America (PhRMA) and Biotechnology Industrial Organization
(BIO).  IPI also refuses to disclose its donors. The letter was written by
Tom Giovanetti, an ideologue who thinks that the discussions at the WHO and
IGWG constitute =B3Marxist madness.=B2 (See Policy Bites blog posting of
November 8, 2007). While AUTM has long expressed a commitment to access to
medicines, it has yet to take concrete action to actually ensure that the
poor in the global south have access to medicines developed on university
campuses.  AUTM is now in fact taking action to oppose an open discussion o=
f
policies that could lead to important new approaches to research and
development for neglected diseases and access to medicines =AD many of whic=
h
have been endorsed by highly respected economists such as Nobel laureate
Joseph Stiglitz.

The success of the IGWG negotiations is crucial to the health of billions o=
f
people.  The goals of the IGWG negotiations are consistent with the mission
of universities to further knowledge and innovation for the global public
good.  AUTM has a responsibility to uphold this mission, and therefore
should not be asking its members to sign on to a document that represents
the interests of PhRMA and BIO over and above this central goal of
universities.  AUTM should rather work constructively to ensure the success
of the IGWG negotiations.

We therefore call on you to show your support for the IGWG process by:

1)    Refusing to sign onto IPI=B9s letter or remove your name if you have
already signed it.
2)    Demanding that AUTM retract its support of the IPI letter
3)    Demanding that AUTM take concrete steps to adopt policies regarding
the funding and licensing of the fruits of university research that serve
the public good and ensure access alongside innovation


Universities Allied for Essential Medicines



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