Universities Allied for Essential Medicines - UBC chapter

Upcoming events galore!

ubcuaem — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 06:52:52 +0000

Hi there, friends! Spring is in the air, and I thought you might like to know: there is an avalanche of events coming up in March. We think they will be pretty awesome. You should definitely go, and tell your friends too!

March 6 (Sat), 10:30am-1:00pm — Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research Conference
UAEMers Andreas Pilarinos and Gordana Panic will be speaking about their research into how some major drugs were developed, and how this history has affected their accessibility.
At Barber Learning Centre, 4th floor (Jubilee Room).
March 11 (Thu), 12:00-1:00pm — Open Access Publishing: Disseminating Information with the World In Mind
UBC faculty and students discuss the coming revolution in academic research: how access to publications will finally be made affordable for those who lack the resources of a developed-world university.
At Barber Learning Centre, Room 302 (Dodson Room). This event is part of UBC’s annual Celebrate Research Week.
March 18 (Thu), 1:15-5:00pm — Symposium: Global Health and Science Education at UBC
Includes a talk on UAEM and open access to research by Mike Gretes and Gordana Panic, as well as a talk on UBC’s new Neglected Global Diseases Initiative by UBC’s very own Chair in Drug Delivery for Neglected Diseases, Dr. Kishor Wasan.
At the Michael Smith Laboratories.
RSVP: iweekscience2010@gmail.com
March 19 (Fri), 12:00-1:00pm — International Week talk
An introduction to UAEM aimed especially at pharmacy students, by UAEMer Rince Wong.
Location TBA.
March 24 (Wed), 9:00am-1:00pm — World Tuberculosis Day
Including keynote speaker Dr. Peter Donald of South Africa, as well a series of short seminars and a poster session. Come learn more about this often-overlooked pandemic which still infects one in three people worldwide.
More info: http://www.microbiology.ubc.ca/worldtbdayprogram
At UBC’s Life Science Centre west atrium.
March 25 (Thu), 5:00-7:00pm — UAEM MOVIE NIGHT!
Join us for a screening of “Chagas: A Hidden Affliction”, a documentary on Chagas disease, an incurable chronic parasitic disease endemic in poor areas of South America. Group discussion to follow on stimulating R&D for neglected diseases.
Location TBA. Check Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=337542662262
March 26-28 (Fri-Sun) — Global Health and Human Security conference
This conference will examine the causes and consequences of global lack of access to essential medicines.
Organized by MSF-UBC and the International Relations Students Association. More info: http://www.ghhs2010.ca/
Fri: At the Global Lounge (in Marine Drive Tower 1). Sat-Sun: At the Liu Institute for Global Issues.

Wow!! I expect it will be difficult for you to avoid ALL of these events. So we’ll see you there!

Andrew

Canadian access-to-medicines bill passes second reading

ubcuaem — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:36:40 +0000

Since 2008, UAEM chapters across Canada have been supporting the work of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network in lobbying for long-overdue reforms to Canada’s Access to Medicines Regime (CAMR), a law which was intended to allow low-cost Canadian generic versions of patented drugs to be exported to poor countries.

When Canada passed this law in 2004 (called, at the time, the “Jean Chrétien Pledge to Africa Act”), it was hailed for its leadership in trade and global health. Unfortunately, the process is laden with red tape and unnecessary requirements that make it very hard for Canadian generic drug companies to actually use: only one drug (an HIV drug) has been shipped to one country (Rwanda) by one company (Apotex Inc). Apotex has stated that they would be willing to use the law again, to export a much-needed low-cost anti-AIDS drug formulated specifically for children — but only if the law is revised to remove this unnecessary red tape.

Reform bills have finally been introduced (C-393 in the House of Commons, and S-292 in the Senate). Earlier this month, to our great joy, Bill C-393 passed second reading in the House by a 16-vote margin. The bill was supported by members of all parties: all members of the NDP and Bloc supported the bill, but both the Conservatives and Liberals were divided.

The Bill must now be reviewed by a Parliamentary committee before it faces a third and final vote in the House, and it is far from clear that all the MPs who supported this bill in second reading will continue their support in the final vote: we still have lots of work to do to ensure that our representatives understand the potential benefit of reforming this law!

You can learn more about CAMR at www.aidslaw.ca/camr. To get involved in this campaign, please contact Kevin Hooi (UAEM) or Lindsey Amèrica-Simms (Legal Network).

Should UBC endorse global access principles from Harvard, Yale, and others?

ubcuaem — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 01:59:53 +0000

After many years of meetings between students and university administrators, seven American universities—including heavyweights Harvard and Yale—have issued a statement that lays out strategies for promoting global access to medicines.

The statement has been endorsed by Harvard University, Yale University, Boston University, Brown University, the Oregon Health and Science University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, as well as by AUTM and the NIH.

This, my friends, is amazing! Until recently, only four universities worldwide had committed to any kind of global access principles (Berkeley, UBC, Emory, Edinburgh). This month, the number has almost tripled!

Read “The Statement of Principles and Strategies for the Equitable Dissemination of Medical Technologies“
Read what UAEM student leaders in the US have to say about the Statement: they welcome the statement and consider it a “big victory”, but do have some significant reservations—especially about Brazil, Russia, India and China being considered exceptions.

UBC already has its own statement of principles, but this new statement is more explicit when it comes to strategy. So UBC is considering signing on as well, but first, they want to hear what you think! Should UBC sign on to the statement? Comments are open until December 15.

Click here to send your thoughts to the UILO.

2009 Introductory Seminar

ubcuaem — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:02:58 +0000

Medical research at universities has a major impact on people’s health around the world.
How can we ensure that universities do the research that is most desperately needed?
How can we ensure that people in poor countries have access to the fruits of that research?

Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) is a student group that tackles these issues through hands-on advocacy. We have already had a lot of success at UBC and other universities, but there is a lot of work left to do, and we need your help! Want to learn more?

UAEM INTRODUCTORY SEMINAR
Saturday, October 17th, 2009
9:30am – 2:00pm
Medical Students Alumni Centre
2750 Heather St. (at 12th Ave), Vancouver, BC

Please join us for this comprehensive introduction to crucial global health topics such as drug development, patenting, and access to treatment — whether you’d like to get involved, or just learn about these important issues.

Videos, slides, and speaking notes from all the presentations will be available following the event. Check back here soon!

Refreshments: coffee, tea and lunch provided!
RSVP: info@ubc-uaem.org (appreciated but not required!)

We hope to see you there!

Download poster

John Sulston speaks at UBC

ubcuaem — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:36:32 +0000

This morning at UBC, Sir John Sulston – Nobel Prize winner, a lead researcher on the human genome project, and Chair of the Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation – gave a stirring talk examining openness, collaboration, and ownership in science. His talk should be available online in a few weeks.

In Dr. Sulston’s talk, he spoke quite strongly in support of UAEM’s advocacy work. For those who were there and had their interest piqued, we at the UBC chapter invite you to learn more about us, the issues, and how you can get involved. (The organization at large also has its own site at uaem.org.)

We’d also like to mention that UBC and its technology transfer office are, in fact, among the world’s leaders in terms of finding ways to license their technologies more equitably. Their principles are outlined on their web site. We’d love your help in winning over other universities to this idea, and in helping get the word out to the research community about this very exciting move on UBC’s part.

UAEM hosts a casual lunchtime seminar

ubcuaem — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:08:36 +0000

LUNCHTIME LECTURE

Access to Essential Medicines for the World’s Poor: The Role of Universities

Thursday, March 26th
12:30-1:30pm
UBC Campus – Chemistry 250

Speakers will discuss neglected diseases, essential medicines, and the access gap. They will go on to describe what can be done at the university level in order to ensure access to essential medicines for people in developing countries, UBC’s commitment to global access licensing, and the challenges that lay ahead.
This is a casual lunchtime seminar with lots of opportunities to engage in dialogue and ask questions. No RSVP required, bring your friends!

For more information contact us at info@ubc-uaem.org.

Join UAEM at “Inspire” Global Health Conference

ubcuaem — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 01:50:25 +0000

On Saturday, March 21st, the Integrated Sciences Student Association of UBC is hosting a Global Health Conference in the Life Sciences Centre. The conference aims to inspire students to learn about international health by facilitating connections with peers and experts in the fields of nutrition, environmental health, medicines, and ethics. UBC-UAEM member Sonja Babovic will be speaking about the role of universities in ensuring global access to lifesaving medicines, and how UBC is working to address this goal.

The conference runs from 10am-3pm in Lecture Theatre 2 of the Life Sciences Centre.

Register now at http://inspireconference.eventbrite.com/. The conference is free, and includes lunch! For more details, please visit http://inspireconference.weebly.com/.

Join UAEM at UBC’s Celebrate Research Week

ubcuaem — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:24:56 +0000

UBC-UAEM is pleased to be presenting the following event for Celebrate Research Week at UBC:

Bridging the Gap:
Bringing Medicines to the Poor of the World

A symposium to discuss how UBC is addressing the obstacles to researching diseases that predominantly affect the developing world, and the challenges inherent in delivering medical technologies to individuals in developing countries.

Featuring celebrated UBC researchers Dr. Brett Finlay, Dr. Robert Hancock, and Dr. Kishor Wasan, along with Ian Bell from the University-Industry Liaison Office, and Michael Gretes from UBC Universities Allied for Essential Medicines.

This event will be presented twice:

Monday, March 9, 2009, 7:00pm-8:30pm at UBC Robson Square, room C150
Tuesday, March 10, 2009, 2:00pm-3:30pm at UBC Main Campus, Life Science Centre, lecture hall 3

All are welcome. We hope to see you there!

Watch our TerryTalk online now!

ubcuaem — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 03:36:14 +0000

In our last post we told you about the awesome talk that UBC-UAEMer Mike Gretes gave at TerryTalks in November 2008. That talk is now online! It’s about 20 minutes long and it gives a solid introduction to what UAEM is all about: the global gap in access to medicines, and what you and I can do about it.

Watch the talk here. You can also download Mike’s slides and script if you’re interested.

UBC-UAEMer Mike Gretes speaks at TerryTalks

ubcuaem — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 07:38:41 +0000

This morning, Mike Gretes of UBC-UAEM gave an impassioned speech at the first inaugural TerryTalks event — the first instance of what will hopefully be an annual event, modeled after the TED conference, where UBC students are challenged to give “the talk of their lives”. Your humble correspondent was tremendously impressed by Mike’s talk, and thinks the audience got a lot out of it as well. We had lots of interest at the booth during the breaks. Great job, Mike!

We are looking forward to sharing the video with you: it will be posted online at some point.

For those just dropping in to find out how you can help, there is one thing in particular we need help with: spreading the word.

That is, telling people about our vision for the world [of biomedical research at universities], as encapsulated by UAEM’s Philadelphia Consensus Statement, but also for the emerging reality: global access licensing is now being implemented at UBC. But for this to truly succeed, UBC researchers need to know about it, and we need to export this success across Canada and around the world.

So what you could do is print out a copy of our consensus statement, and a copy of UBC’s global access principles, and go talk to your professors (or anyone else involved in medical research: TAs, grad students, etc) about these issues. If you’re feeling adventurous, you could give Mike’s talk, or something like it, to your classmates, or at a departmental seminar. Please let us know if you plan to do this! We will be happy to help.

If you’d like to practice your spiel and get feedback first, come on out to one of our meetings. Or you may want to learn more first. In any case, we’ve got lots of other ways to get involved. And as always, we’d love to hear from you.

Update: the script and slides have now been posted on the Learn More page.