Universities should ensure global access to patented new medicines and technologies, report urges
Universities are in a unique position to draft licensing and patent strategies for the development of life-saving medicines and technologies that benefit low-and middle-income countries, according to a report by faculty and students working at the Yale Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS.
The report summarizes the conclusions of a recent Yale workshop that brought together experts in public health, intellectual property management and university policy to discuss what universities can do to promote access to essential medicines and medical technologies in developing countries.
The report -- titled "Access to Essential Medicines and University Research: Building Best Practices" -- recommends that universities should not patent their discoveries in targeted developing countries. It also states that universities could negotiate clauses in their licensing agreements requiring that the products be available in low- and middle-income countries quickly, in sufficient quantities and at an appropriate cost.
The Sept. 19 issue of Science included an editorial about the report written by Dr. Michael Merson, dean and the Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Public Health at the School of Medicine, along with recent Law School graduates Amy Kapczynski and E. Tyler Crone.
The editorial points out that in 2001 alone, universities were granted over 3,000 patents. The authors write: "They [patents] not only bring revenue, but controversy, when they ensure power over commodities that are the very currency of life itself."
The authors also point to the discussions between Yale and Bristol-Myers Squibb that resulted in the first patent concession on an AIDS drug and a 30-fold reduction in price of the patented drug in South Africa. "Such actions should not hurt universities' bottom line, diminish their ability to strike licensing deals, or discourage innovation because there is little profit at stake," Merson and his colleagues write in the editorial.
While universities and other public institutions have taken steps to make drugs more affordable and available, the editorial contends these actions are still far too rare, particularly for diseases that are not as politically relevant as AIDS.
"Where lives and health are at stake, universities should not pass the buck," notes the editorial. "University research is intended to advance the common public good. It is time that it consistently do so globally, as well as locally."
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