UAEM: In ‘Historic” Shift, Universities In Canada Adopt Licensing Promoting Access To Medicines

By David Branigan for Intellectual Property Watch

Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) announced today that University of Calgary and McGill University are joining University of British Columbia in adopting Global Access Licensing Principles. These principles promote public access to publicly-funded medicines and life-saving health technologies developed in universities, according to a UAEM press release [pdf].

The Global Access Licencing (GAL) framework, developed by UAEM students, includes “directives for providing non-exclusive licensing for technologies to increase access in low- and middle-income countries,” the release states.

UAEM students developed the GAL framework in response to the “significant barriers” posed by intellectual property to the “affordability of medicines for vulnerable and marginalized populations, due to exorbitant prices resulting from a lack of competition,” it says.

“This is an incredible display of student advocacy at the local level that has the potential for tremendous impact on access to medicines globally,” Merith Basey, executive director of UAEM North America, said in the release.

“The commitments made by McGill and the University of Calgary, combined with the efforts of the current Canadian government to curtail high drug costs, marks a historic shift in the discourse surrounding affordable healthcare,” UAEM said.

More information on UAEM can be found here.

 

Image Credits: UAEM