Transcript Slide 1

Essential Medicines and the University Challenge:
Promoting Local Research for Global Impact
The Access Gap
Why Are Prices So High?
Global Access Licensing at UBC
Neglected Tropical Diseases
10 million lives could be saved
each year by providing better
access
to
existing
essential
medicines.
Drug development is expensive - it
can cost up to $1 billion to bring new
discoveries from bench to bedside.
In 2007, The University-Industry
Liaison Office, in collaboration with
UAEM, developed the Global Access
Licensing (GAL) principles at UBC.
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)
are infectious diseases that are
common in tropical climates. NTDs
are inextricably tied to poverty and
can cause lifelong disabilities; they
lead to malnutrition and affect the
development of children.
Universities Allied for Essential
Medicines: Our Role
UAEM is a student-led organization
with chapters at more than 40 major
research universities across North
America, Europe and around the
world. Our work includes:
Molecular Target
.
Cost: $200 million - $1
billion
• Advocating for equitable access to
the fruits of university biomedical
research. In particular, ensuring that
drugs developed in campus labs are
available in developing countries at
prices patients can afford.
• Promoting research on neglected
diseases: those diseases that
predominantly affect people who are
too poor to constitute a market
attractive to private sector investment
• Advancing legislation that protects
access to essential medicines,
such as the Canadian Access to
Medicines Regime of 2004, which
permits production of affordable,
generic
versions
of
patented
medicines for export to developing
nations.
Under GAL, when UBC licenses its
health technologies, it will negotiate
‘at cost’ access in the developing
world and will seek out new
partnerships to provide funding for
neglected disease research.
Target Validation
Biochemical
Assay Screening
Leads
Animal Studies
Drug Metabolism
Safety
Assessment
Clinical Trials I,
II and III
Time: 8 - 15 years
A.
One important barrier to access is the
high cost of drugs.
A WORLD OF HOPE
In order to recover these costs,
companies are granted patents:
exclusive rights to develop, produce
and sell the drugs. As a result,
essential medicines can be too
expensive for many people to afford.
B.
Patent
C.
E.
D.
A
.
The term “neglected” arises from the
insufficient funding available for
research into the prevention and
treatment of these conditions.
Pharmaceutical
Company for
Brand Name Drug
Pharmaceutical
Company for
Generic Drug
F.
B
.
Patent
Success Story
C.
• Supporting
global
health
education by advocating for open
access to biomedical knowledge and
sharing information about health
technology
development
and
deployment. We run educational
conferences, workshops, and shape
university curricula to more accurately
reflect global health needs.
D
.
Before ARV Therapy
6 Months After ARV
Therapy
Stavudine, an antiretroviral (ARV),
was originally developed at Yale
University and later exclusively
licensed to Bristol-Myers Squibb,
which sold it at a prohibitively high
price ($10439 per year).
Pressure from civil society groups in
South Africa allowed for the import of
a
low-cost generic version of
stavudine to treat poor patients like
Joseph (pictured), for only $87 per
year.
U n i v e r s i t i e s
Pharmaceutical
Company for
Brand Name
Drug
E
.
Universities Have a Role
Most novel therapeutics originate in
university labs, and are licensed to
pharmaceutical companies for further
development.
We
have
the
opportunity and responsibility to
negotiate licenses that protect lowcost access to the poor.
Through GAL at UBC, Dr. Kishor
Wasan’s
oral
reformulation
of
Amphotericin B will be made
affordable to patients in developing
countries by iCo Therapeutics.
Amphotericin B can be used to treat
fungal
infections
and
visceral
leishmaniasis, a neglected tropical
disease which clams over 50,000
lives each year.
Young patient suffering from visceral
leishmaniasis (left),
Global prevalence of leishmaniasis (above),
Dr. Kishor Wasan (below)
PARTNERS
UAEM works in collaboration with the
Neglected
Global
Diseases
initiative (NGDi) at UBC, which
brings together experts from a variety
of disciplines to develop treatments
for the world’s most neglected
diseases. We also continue to work
with the UILO to promote Global
Access Licensing.
www.ngdi-ubc.com
For more information, please visit:
UAEM home page: www.uaem.org
A l l i e d
UBC chapter: ubc-uaem.org
f o r
E s s e n t i a l
www.uilo.ubc.ca
M e d i c i n e s