2006 April « The Quest for Essential Medicine Access

Day Meeting Recap

Posted in Uncategorized by uaemuf on the 25 April 2006

UAEM's meeting with the technology director went pretty well yesterday. Mike Day and Ashley went to meet with David Day (OTL Director), John Byatt (Associate Director - PIPRA), and Mary Ann Burg (SCOR Committee - Faculty Senate) to discuss access friendly defaults in our licensing negotiations.

One of the main concerns with our proposal was that they doubt the importance of university IP rights in restricting access to essential medicines. AUTM did a survey of the top selling drugs and found that only 2 out of 50 drugs were based on university research. Mike brought up the point that this may not be representative of drugs that are exported to LMI countries, because they aren't likely to be the top selling drugs.

Out of UF's patents for the last year, only about 5-10 (of 66) patents were concerned with pharmaceutical products. Applications are wide: from diabetes to glaucoma and schizophrenia.

Regarding access to university research by the entire university system, currently 2/3 of our proposals for the past year have included the right of other universities to use our (and pharmas) research for further research applications. That's a good sign, seeing as it's only been something that UF has had in its standard agreement for about two years.

There were also some concerns about the Berkeley Technology Law Journal on the EAL. First, they were concerned that businesses need a motivation to agree to any access friendly conditions. What we need is an economic incentive to relax IP rights - and frankly, we've yet to see any convincing evidence on that account. The article also references the Bayh-Dole Act and the "public good." The directors feel like the term "public good" is in relation to America and people who are more nationalistic will argue that it is not meant to be applied to foreign countries. Quite a few people take the approach that tax-payer money should only be used to benefit those people - and look down upon this charitable use of federal funds.

Generally, OTL thinks that getting pharmaceutical companies to agree to the Equal Access License and a loss of IP rights is about as likely as greeting Marvin the Martian. Shareholders would not be happy with a private company giving IP away for free. Also, there's the concern (which we've heard brought up before) that if there is a bad generic producer of a particular drug, than the pharmaceutical company that did all the R&D might be legally liable for any damages - which would be very dangerous.

Some interesting stuff that probably needs more research by us is that the AAV vector (which apparently is very common in FL although I don't know what exactly it is) has a documented open model. Anyone can conduct additional research and all their reseach is open to be used by others. Also, apparently there is a UBMTA agreement that over 100 univerisities adhere to in regards to technology management.

Day and Byatt agreed to seriously consider the proposals and while they think that the EAL is a little far reaching as it stands, they have agreed to get back with us in 4-6 weeks with some kind of initial plan. They seem to think that the best way to get to the heart of the access problem without scaring the pharmas is to do so by other means, such as the university giving up their royalties (which Day doesn't think Machen would be favorable with) or due diligence clauses. That way we aren't forcing the pharmaceutical companies to go a specific route, but just making sure that drugs are accessible to the people in LMIs. Also, it sounds like Day will be calling up Emory and Berkeley TTOs to see what angle they are going to.

So UAEM should be pleased. It's going to be actively considered. Now to remain friends with them.

Mike and Ashley

PS- Day says that disclosure of licensing revenues would be a violation of contract confidentiality - so that's a no go. He says that there are a lot of public resources on that though that aren't UF specific.

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Resolution Time!

Posted in Uncategorized by uaemuf on the 9 April 2006

The resolution that UAEM has drafted for UF Student Government Senate is set to be on the floor this Tuesday. Everyone is encouraged to come out and stand with us during bill presentation. Wish us luck!

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