Send a letter to President Yudof
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Our Argument
The problem
Over 10 million people die per year from lack of access to essential medicines.
This lack of access is a result of the lack of generic production of
drugs still under patent in third world countries, even when only minimal
revenue for patented drugs comes from these countries
(Africa constitutes only 1% of the global pharmaceutical market). Universities patent their drugs before
licensing them to drug companies, and by paying royalties, these companies can
block others from producing the drug and hold a global monopoly over production.
The role of universities in alleviating the problem
Most of the basic research for drugs is done in university
laboratories using federal funding (about 3 out of 4 drugs, according to a US Senate report).
Once a drug shows potential, the university patents it and licensed it out to a drug company
for further development and clinical trials. Because of their role in
research and their stated dedication to public service, universities can negotiate with
drug companies for the production of generic drugs for third-world countries.
This puts them in a unique position to address the shortage of essential medicines around the world.
Historical precedent for success
In 2001, an Indian drug company named Cipla offered to produce a generic version
of Zerit, a nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor.
The patent at the time was jointly held by Yale and Bristol-Meyers Squibb.
Yale initially balked at the offer, blaming BMS for tying its hands on the issue.
But after student campaigns, intense public pressure, including a front-page story in
the NY Times, Yale were able to persuade BMS to allow production of the generic drug
Stavudine to proceed, bringing the drug to millions of HIV patients.
Since then, a number of our peer institutions such as Emory,
the University of British Columbia, and the University of Washington
have already signed principled statements prioritizing access in technology licensing,
so this is not an unreasonable request for the UC.
Our goal
The University of California is the nation's leader in academic research and
technology transfer. For 14 years in a row, UC has been the largest
academic recipient of patents in the United States, with more than twice
the number of patents as MIT, the second largest academic patent recipient.
It has an active portfolio of more than 8,200 inventions including the hepatitis B vaccine,
the cancer drug cefurixime, the second-line HIV drug Fuzeon, and
the transdermal nicotine patch. From 2002 to 2007, the University
earned over $500 million in royalties and fees.
As students of this prolific UC system, UAEM is pushing for the University of California to
allow production of generics of the drugs they research. We plan to do this through negotiations
with the UC Office of the President, University Technology Transfer Offices, and research professors.
You can start helping by signing the letter to show your support.