[Ip-health] Bloomberg: Harvard, Yale, Three Schools Back Drug Policies to Help Poor

[Ethan Guillen]

--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
Following years of advocacy by UAEM and partners, a number of important
research institutions have adopted new licensing principles to improve
access to university discovered medicines in developing countries.  We
welcome this important step and the institutions involved deserve to be
recognized for their actions.  There are important shortcomings to the
principles.  However, the universities have pledged themselves to metrics t=
o
monitor the implementation of the principles and a regular review process o=
f
the principles.  UAEM only very recently received the document; we will hav=
e
a fuller analysis available in the coming days.


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=3D20601103&sid=3Daa23AHBWnxew

Harvard, Yale, Three Schools Back Drug Policies to Help Poor
By John Lauerman

Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Harvard University, Yale University and three other
schools are pledging to encourage companies to give poor countries better
access to drugs and medical products based on discoveries made on their
campuses.

Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Yale in New Haven, Connecticut; Brown
University in Providence, Rhode Island; the University of Pennsylvania in
Philadelphia; and Boston University in Boston will release the statement
today, which will guide how drugs developed by scientists at the schools ar=
e
licensed to companies, said, a spokesman for Harvard. The schools signed th=
e
statement after campus student groups pushed for policies to make new drugs
available at low cost to poor patients.

The statement commits the schools to make =93vigorous efforts=94 to promote
global access to drugs through licensing strategies. The five schools said
that, for example, they=92ll work to include provisions in licenses that ca=
ll
for lower prices in poor countries. They=92ll also use strategies such as
decreasing their own royalty rates to persuade companies to cut prices or
allow low-cost generic production of new drugs for poor patients, the
statement said.

=93We agree that it=92s important that our intellectual property doesn=92t =
serve
as a barrier -- and in some cases should be used as leverage -- to help
ensure that drugs, vaccines and other technologies reach the developing
world,=94 Maryanne Fenerjian, Harvard=92s director of technology-transfer
policy, said in an interview. =93But there is no single solution. Every
technology is different and every licensee=92s capabilities and sensitiviti=
es
are different.=94

Academic Innovation

Academic researchers=92 findings provide the technological basis for
innovation for virtually every biotechnology company in the world, said Joh=
n
Maraganore<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=3DJohn+Maraganore&site=3Dwn=
ews&client=3Dwnews&proxystylesheet=3Dwnews&output=3Dxml_no_dtd&ie=3DUTF-8&o=
e=3DUTF-8&filter=3Dp&getfields=3Dwnnis&sort=3Ddate:D:S:d1>,
Chief Executive Officer of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
Inc<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=3DALNY%3AUS>.
in Cambridge. He said he hadn=92t known that Harvard was developing the
statement.

=93I=92m concerned about this type of action taking place unilaterally for =
a
major source of inventions for the world,=94 he said. =93I think it=92s ver=
y
important to have a dialogue to get this right.=94

Harvard officials want to craft guidelines that encourage drug access for
poor nations without dissuading companies from working with university
scientists, said Fenerjian. Many of the techniques cited in the document
have already been used by Harvard to help promote access to drugs, Fenerjia=
n
said.

Student Group

An international student group called Universities Allied for Essential
Medicines <http://www.essentialmedicine.org/>, supported by the Ford
Foundation, has been asking schools to help broaden access to drugs for
about seven years. In 2001, members of the group pushed Yale and
drugmaker Bristol-Myers
Squibb <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=3DBMY%3AUS> to permit
generic production of its AIDS drug Zerit in South Africa, so that it can b=
e
sold at a lower price. About one in
six<http://www.avert.org/safricastats.htm> South
African adults is infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Harvard=92s chapter of Essential Medicines held demonstrations on campus in
favor of increased drug access in September. Supporters erected giant pill
bottles on campus and wore =93Say Yes to Drugs=94 T-shirts to raise awarene=
ss of
the issue, and held a fund-raising dance, said Jillian Irwin, a member of
Harvard=92s chapter.

They collected more than 1,000 signatures in the past week, petitioning
Harvard to put in place a licensing policy that would increase access in
poor nations. Harvard students also met with Provost Steven
Hyman<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=3DSteven+Hyman&site=3Dwnews&clie=
nt=3Dwnews&proxystylesheet=3Dwnews&output=3Dxml_no_dtd&ie=3DUTF-8&oe=3DUTF-=
8&filter=3Dp&getfields=3Dwnnis&sort=3Ddate:D:S:d1>
and
Harvard School of Public Health Dean Julio Frenk earlier this year to ask
for action on the issue, Irwin said.

New Revenue

Harvard hired Chief Technology Development Officer Isaac
Kohlberg<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=3DIsaac%0AKohlberg&site=3Dwne=
ws&client=3Dwnews&proxystylesheet=3Dwnews&output=3Dxml_no_dtd&ie=3DUTF-8&oe=
=3DUTF-8&filter=3Dp&getfields=3Dwnnis&sort=3Ddate:D:S:d1>
away
from New York University four years ago and began expanding the Office of
Technology Development to put more campus research to use. The school is
trying to raise revenue from new sources after its endowment lost about a
third of its value last year, said Michael
Smith<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=3DMichael+Smith&site=3Dwnews&cli=
ent=3Dwnews&proxystylesheet=3Dwnews&output=3Dxml_no_dtd&ie=3DUTF-8&oe=3DUTF=
-8&filter=3Dp&getfields=3Dwnnis&sort=3Ddate:D:S:d1>,
dean of Harvard=92s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the school=92s biggest
division, in a speech in September.

Kohlberg is trying to catch up with the licensing success of universities
such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also in Cambridge. MIT
granted 67 licenses in fiscal year 2009, which ended June 30, and got $66.3
million in royalty income, according to the school Web site. In the same
year, Harvard sold 36
licenses<http://www.techtransfer.harvard.edu/mediacenter/annuals/stats/>,
raising $12.4 million in revenue. In fiscal year 2008, Harvard sold 26
licenses and raised $21.1 million.

=91Helpful=92 Involvement

Harvard=92s licensing officials have been meeting with students for as long=
 as
four years to discuss the drug-access issue, Casey said. Their involvement
in the licensing issue, which has become more intense this year, has been
=93helpful,=94 he said.

=93There=92s been a convergence of interest,=94 Casey said. =93The students=
 have
constructively engaged in an area that happens to align with one that the
administration at the provost level and below has been concerned about.=94

Students at the 373-year-old school have scrutinized other relationships
between Harvard faculty and industry. Earlier this year, students at Harvar=
d
Medical School pushed to require faculty to reveal their financial ties to
companies before lecturing.

Irwin, from the Harvard chapter of Essential Medicines, said the group
stepped up pressure on the licensing issue earlier this year after a
February speech by Andrew
Witty<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=3DAndrew+Witty&site=3Dwnews&clie=
nt=3Dwnews&proxystylesheet=3Dwnews&output=3Dxml_no_dtd&ie=3DUTF-8&oe=3DUTF-=
8&filter=3Dp&getfields=3Dwnnis&sort=3Ddate:D:S:d1>,
Chief Executive Officer of London-based GlaxoSmithKline
Plc,<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=3DGSK%3ALN> the
world=92s No. 2 drugmaker. Witty said the company would cut prices for its
drugs in the world=92s 50 poorest countries, and that it would share patent=
s
on technologies that might address health problems in poor countries.

Preserving Incentives

Alnylam, which has licensed a drugmaking technology called RNA interference
that stops individual genes from making proteins are key to diseases
including cancer, nerve disorders and lung infections, OK? was one of a
number of companies that agreed along with Glaxo to share intellectual
property, Maraganore said.

=93It=92s very appropriate to promote mechanisms whereby medicines become m=
ore
available in parts of the world where they=92re needed,=94 he said. =93At t=
he same
time, it=92s critical to preserve the incentives to discover those medicine=
s
in the first place.=94

Since the June meeting, members of Essential Medicines haven=92t been invit=
ed
to participate in the discussions, according to Irwin. Students haven=92t s=
een
a draft of the guidelines and don=92t know whether they=92re strong enough =
to
make a difference in the cost of new medical technologies in the developing
world, she said.

=91Concrete Policy=92

=93We=92re asking for a concrete policy,=94 said Irwin, a junior at Harvard=
 who
majors in social and cognitive neuroscience. =93We want to know the provisi=
ons
that will be included in different types of licenses, and how this policy
will be incorporated into them.=94

Schools can=92t guarantee that access-promoting provisions will be
incorporated into every license agreement, said Harvard=92s Fenerjian. Scho=
ols
don=92t always have the bargaining power to include access provisions in th=
eir
agreements with companies, which often pay hundreds of millions of dollars
to develop new drugs and are highly selective in which ones they license,
she said.

More schools will be invited to sign on to the guidelines, she said.

=93A number of institutions have been willing to be tough and creative on
these issues,=94 she said. =93Until now, we haven=92t had a statement says =
this is
what we see as our goal, this is what we see as our new norm.=94

To contact the reporter on this story: John
Lauerman<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=3DJohn+Lauerman&site=3Dwnews&=
client=3Dwnews&proxystylesheet=3Dwnews&output=3Dxml_no_dtd&ie=3DUTF-8&oe=3D=
UTF-8&filter=3Dp&getfields=3Dwnnis&sort=3Ddate:D:S:d1>
in
Boston at jlauerman@bloomberg.net.
*Last Updated: November 9, 2009 00:02 EST*
*
*


--
Ethan Guillen
Universities Allied for Essential Medicines
2625 Alcatraz Ave. #180
Berkeley, CA 94705
www.essentialmedicine.org