[Ip-health] HUNDREDS OF STUDENTS, SCHOLARS, AND EXPERTS TO GATHER AT YALE ACCESS TO MEDICINES CONFERENCE

[Anjali Dalal]

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MEDIA ADVISORY




Contact: Jake Izenberg

203-645-8435

jacob.izenberg@yale.edu




*Hundreds of Students, Scholars, and Experts to Gather at Yale Access to
Medicine Conference*

* *

*UAEM National Conference to Be Held November 14, 15*

* *

*New Haven**, CT* =96 As part of their international campaign to enhance
access to medicine, hundreds of students from the United States, Canada,
Brazil, Germany, UK, and Tanzania will come to the Yale School of Medicine
on November 14 and 15 for the 2009 conference of Universities Allied for
Essential Medicine. <http://www.essentialmedicine.org/fall-conference09/>



The conference comes on the heels of a substantial victory in the campaign
to enhance access to medicines through changes to changes to university
licensing and patenting policies. On Monday, November 9, Yale, Harvard, the
Association of University Technology Managers, a several other universities
announced<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=3Dnewsarchive&sid=3Daa23AH=
BWnxew>that
they had adopted a new set of principles to govern their licensing and
patenting
policies.<http://www.autm.net/AM/Template.cfm?Section=3DGlobal_Health&Templ=
ate=3D/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=3D3848>UAEM
called the announcement an important step forward, although far more
progress is necessary in order to alleviate the current crisis in access to
medicines that kills over ten million people per year.



At workshops, lectures, and activism trainings, the students from two-dozen
universities will interact with scholars and practitioners in the fields of
intellectual property, medicine, technology transfer, and public policy.
They will exchange ideas, engage in policy and advocacy training, and
develop strategies for their international campaign to promote access to
medicines for people in developing countries. UAEM=92s efforts in this rega=
rd
are focused on changing norms and practices around university patenting and
licensing* *and ensuring that university medical research meets the needs o=
f
the majority of the world=92s population.* *



Highlight speakers at the conference will include Peter Hotez of George
Washington University, long-time AIDS activists Eric Sawyer and Gregg
Gonsalves, and Gorik Ooms, the former director of MSF Belgium and now
faculty at Yale.


UAEM students are from major research universities where they are currently
working to get their universities to adopt licensing policies that reflect
academia=92s responsibility to social justice, international development, a=
nd
global health by ensuring that medicine developed at university laboratorie=
s
will be licensed to pharmaceutical companies with agreements that allow
generic manufactures to produce those same medicines for cheap distribution
in low- and middle-income countries.


UAEM at Yale has the support of a number of other student organizations,
including the Yale chapter of the American Medical Student Association, Yal=
e
Law Democrats,  Yale Law Women Board =9209/=9210, Women=92s Health Interest=
 Group,
and the Yale Medical School chapter of the American Medical Association,
among others