PHA-Exchange> Philadelphia Consensus Statement

[Castro, Araceli]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

November 14, 2006 


Contact: Caroline Gallant 

(514) 833-7703 

caroline.gallant at mail.mcgill.ca 



Students Across North America Call for Universities to Stop Abetting
Access-to-Medicines Crisis in Poor Countries 


International Leaders Voice Support for Student Activists 



PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - A student group seeking to make life-saving
medicines more accessible in developing countries has caught the
attention of an array of international leaders.  A South African Supreme
Court Justice, four Nobel laureates, and humanitarians including the UN
Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa and the co-founders of Partners in
Health have voiced their support for the recently-released Philadelphia
Consensus Statement of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines
(UAEM). 


The Consensus Statement consists of three major policy proposals to
reform the way universities develop and license biomedical research
discoveries.  According to the Statement, universities should: (1)
promote equal access to the fruits of university research, such as drugs
and vaccines; (2) engage in and promote research and development for
neglected diseases; and (3) measure research success according to impact
on human welfare.  The text of the Philadelphia Consensus Statement and
a full list of signatories are available at
http://consensus.essentialmedicine.org/ . 


"The Philadelphia Consensus Statement represents a watershed moment for
universities to collectively do the right thing when it comes to making
their innovations available to those who need it most," said Justice
Edwin Cameron, who serves on the South African Supreme Court of Appeal.
Justice Cameron was the first senior South African official to state
publicly that he was living with HIV/AIDS. 


"For too long, life-saving medical tools that are the fruits of
university-led discovery have been denied to poor people in poor
countries.  If our universities really are to be institutions for the
public good, this must change," said Dr. Paul Farmer, co-founder of the
humanitarian organization Partners in Health and Presley Professor of
Medical Anthropology at Harvard University. 


The issue of university research and the access crisis has also
attracted the attention of policymakers at the national level.  Senator
Patrick Leahy (D-VT), ranking member on the Judiciary Committee,
recently introduced legislation requiring all federally-funded research
institutions to ensure that the drugs they develop are supplied to poor
countries at the lowest possible cost.  The Public Research in the
Public Interest Act of 2006 (S. 4040) reflects a growing consensus that
universities have failed to act on an issue uniquely within their power.



"Universities are, before anything else, institutions dedicated to the
creation and dissemination of knowledge in the public interest.  The
Public Research in the Public Interest Act of 2006 is designed in the
spirit of that commitment," said Senator Leahy.  "I have introduced this
legislation because the leaders of universities have not yet been able
to come together around a different approach.  Regardless of how it is
achieved, I believe that increasing the availability of the medical
innovations that come from publicly-funded research centers is a sound
solution to a pressing global health concern." 


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About Universities Allied for Essential Medicines 


UAEM is a coalition of over 35 student chapters across North America
dedicated to using university action to ameliorate the
access-to-medicines crisis in developing countries.  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.  Please see
http://www.essentialmedicine.org/ for more information. 



About the Philadelphia Consensus Statement 


The Philadelphia Consensus Statement was adopted by Universities Allied
for Essential Medicines following the 2006 annual conference held in
early October at the University of Pennsylvania.  Initial signatories
include four Nobel laureates, nine of the most distinguished professors
in the field of intellectual property law, and international luminaries
including Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa; Zackie
Achmat, founder of South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign; and Jim
Yong Kim, former Director of the Department of HIV/AIDS at the World
Health Organization.   


The text of the statement and a full list of initial signatories is
available online at: http://consensus.essentialmedicine.org/ 



About the Public Research in the Public Interest Act of 2006 ( S.4040) 


This bill would allow generic manufacturers to supply medicines
originating from federally-funded university innovations in developing
countries at affordable prices.  Because these licensing terms encourage
the introduction of reduced-price drugs only in markets too poor to
otherwise afford them, its terms do not threaten intellectual property,
corporate investments, or profits in wealthy nations.  Moreover, under
the proposal, both pharmaceutical companies and universities would
receive royalties from the sale of generics in developing-world markets.



The text of S.4040 is available online at:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_bills
&docid=f:s4040is.txt.pdf 

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