How It Began
With over 30 chapters now, UAEM was founded at Yale around a particular access to medicines issue.
Yale scientists had discovered that the compound d4T was a potent antiretroviral.
They patented the compound and licensed it to Bristol-Myer Squibb,
a pharmaceutical company. Eventually, Doctors Without Borders intended to use
d4T in an antiretroviral program in South Africa.
However, the price made it unaffordable for them to use. Doctors Without Borders
first asked Brystol-Myer Squibb, and then Yale, to allow generic producers
to manufacture the drug, making it much cheaper.
Both Brystol-Myer Squibb and Yale declined to do so.
At that point, Doctors Without Borders went to Yale students
and pointed out to them that Yale's mission statement included
comments about doing work for the greater good.
Yale students became involved in the situation and
lobbied their administration to change their policy on d4T.
Eventually, student activism resulted in production
at cost for South Africa, and eventually, generic production.
The d4T issue at Yale had incredibly positive implications for the price of d4T in South Africa.
When Brystol-Myer Squibb began to producing it at-cost at Yale's request,
the price dropped from $1600 per patient per year to $55 per patient per year.
Generic production then reduced the price by an additional 40%.
It's important to note that this particular licensing deal resulted in
no loss income for Yale, meaning that the university was not harmed by allowing
increased access to an essential medicine in a lower and middle-income country.
Our Mission
Universities Allied for Essential Medicines has a two-fold mission:
(1) to determine how universities can help ensure that biomedical end products,
such as drugs, are made more accessible in poor countries and
(2) to increase the amount of research conducted on neglected diseases,
or those diseases predominantly affecting people who are too poor
to constitute a market attractive to private-sector R&D investment.
In both cases, universities are well-placed to make a difference.
University scientists are major contributors in the drug development pipeline.
At the same time, universities have an avowed commitment to advancing the public good.
As members of these universities, our fundamental goal is to hold them to this commitment.
