Universities Allied for Essential Medicines Our labs. Our drugs. Our

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Universities Allied for
Essential Medicines
Our labs. Our drugs. Our Responsibility.
The UAEM Quarterly Newsletter: Contents UAEM Annual
Conference Re-cap
November 2010
From the Legal Desk ¡Olá de Brasil!
Krista Cox,
UAEM held its
UAEM Staff
annual conference on Attorney, brings us
October 9-10 at
up to speed on the
Duke & UNC
India Bayh-Dole
Chapel Hill.
meeting and on the
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legal challenge over
gene patenting.
UAEM spreads
south to Brazil and
students there take
charge in spreading
the mission of global
access to medicines.
Page 4
How Great a Change UNC Adopts Global
Access Princples
a Year Can Bring
Get an inside look
on the progress that
has been made by
Harvard regarding
the SPS.
Students at UNC
Chapel Hill work
with their TTO to get
global access principles
adopted.
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UAEM’s Executive Director, Ethan
Guillen, will be stepping down at the end
of December 2010 in order to pursue
other life goals. This organization has been
fortunate enough to have Ethan at the
helm for the past three years, during which
time he has contributed heavily to UAEM’s
success.
Since Ethan came on as the first Executive
Director in 2007 UAEM has undergone an
amazing transition into an internationally
recognized and respected NGO. Under
Ethan’s leadership, UAEM has expanded
Join the push in the
United Kingdom as
students there advocate
for policies within the
Global Access
Licensing Framework.
UAEM has sadly
lost a dedicated
member who will
surely be missed.
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Page 3
Thank you,
Ethan!
Students Push for IP Remembering a
Dear Friend: Sujal
Policy Change at
Manchester University Parikh
throughout the United States, Canada, and
Europe, but also to previously unrepresented regions like Brazil, Tanzania,
Rwanda, Uganda and Nepal. Ethan, along
with our phenomenal Board of Directors,
has worked tirelessly to provide UAEM
with a fiscally solid footing the past couple
of years, even during the economic
recession. UAEM has become a key player
in international discussions over IP and
health, greatly due to Ethan’s efforts in
negotiations with the UN and WHO in
Geneva and elsewhere. One of his greatest
abilities is to empower others to take action
and develop innovative new ideas to help
solve the global access to medicines crisis.
Many students leaders were fostered by his
dedication to providing them with the tools
they needed to bring about change in the
world. This certainly is a short list of the
many significant contributions Ethan has
made while Executive Director, it would
take the remainder of this newsletter to
spell it all out.
Currently an exhaustive search is underway
by a joint committee of the Board of
Directors and the Coordinating Committee
to find UAEM’s next Executive Director. If
you are interested in learning more about
the position or would like to participate in
the hiring process, please contact Virginia
Zaunbrecher ([email protected]).
There is no doubt that everyone will miss
Ethan and that we are sad to see him go;
however, everyone certainly wishes him the
best of luck with all of his future
endeavors. Thank you Ethan for your
unwavering dedication to the mission and
vision of UAEM and for for empowering a
generation of students to forward the
access to medicines movement.
Left: Ethan Guillen at the
UAEM Conference. Center:
Bucky Fazen (left), Ethan
Guillen (center), and Rachel
Kiddell-Monroe (right) at a
UAEM meeting in Brazil.
Right: Ethan giving his “State
of UAEM” address at the 2010
UAEM Conference. Photos
courtesy of Pravak Shah and Bucky
Fazen.
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UAEM Annual Conference Re-cap
On October 8-9, 2010, UAEM held its
annual conference, bringing together
member students from across the world
and experts in the fields of global health
and intellectual property. Duke and the
University of North Carolina played
excellent co-hosts to a fun and inspiring
weekend. The conference was also made
possible by support from the Duke Global
Health Institute, the UNC Gillings School
of Global Public Health, the Perls
Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable
Foundation
Patent Pool and the exciting news that the
NIH and Univeristy of Illinois-Chicago
have added their patent on an AIDS drug
to the pool. We need to pressure our
universities to do the same.
UAEM student leaders from the NIH,
UCSF, and Toronto also led sessions to
discuss several problems and potential
solutions to the access to medicines crisis
including intellectual property barriers, the
research and development gap, and the
current metrics used to measure research
and access. Meanwhile, UAEMers from
Harvard and MIT shared their experiences
with their administration over
implementation of the "Statement of
Principles and Strategies” and what next
steps UAEM should take to improve the
document. Their presentations can be
found online on the conference website
(essentialmedicine.org/conference/2010).
The first day of the conference opened
with a welcome from Dr. Mike Merson,
Director of the Duke Global Health
Institute, followed by a passionate speech
by Rachel Kiddell-Monroe, President of
t h e UA E M B o a r d o f D i r e c t o r s.
Referencing the approximately 10 million
people who die from lack of access to
essential medicines she said, “Imagine the
entire population of North Carolina being UAEM chapters from Germany, Norway,
wiped out each year..."
Brazil, the UK, Central Michig an
University, Boston University, and
The first panel of the conference included University of Michigan presented on their
three experts discussing the access to s p e c i f i c c a m p u s c a m p a i g n s a n d
medicines crisis: Dr. Matthew Spitzer, achievements.
UAEM's Campus
President of the U.S. Board of Directors of Campaigns, Empowerment, and Policy
MSF/Doctors Without Borders; Emi working groups also discussed their plans
MacLean, also from MSF (and a UAEM for the academic year and invited all
alum); and Suerie Moon, an advisor to the UAEM members to join them.
Medicines Patent Pool (and former
Harvard UAEM member). Dr. Spitzer A plenary on Technology Transfer
noted that UAEM has provided a model followed UAEM chapter updates, with
framework for universities to use in order sessions on the Neglected Disease and
to improve access to medicines, but also Metrics working groups closing the
noted that 200 million children worldwide conference for the day.
suffer from malnutrition and more work
needs to be done on this front. MacLean Day 2 kicked off with a look at the joint
highlighted the neglected disease gap in UAEM and AMSA biologics campaign and
research: more medications exist for canine the next steps for the group now that the
depression than sleeping sickness. Moon health care reform bill has passed. Bhaven
introduced the UNITAID Medicines Sampat, Dept. of Health Policy and
Management at Columbia University, Arti
Rai, Duke Law School, and Krista Cox,
UAEM Staff Attorney, participated on a
panel discussion on the Bayh-Dole Act and
its impact on university licensing and drug
access.
Dan Ravicher, Executive Director of
Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) and
our keynote speaker, gave his excellent,
highly engaging keynote speech on gene
patenting and access to medicines. He
argued that the patent system poses 3 key
problems: access, research and quality; and
that patents should only be necessary to
promote progress.
After lunch, Matt Kavanagh, Director of
US Advocacy, Health GAP presented an
introductory session on the global health
funding crisis. He discussed the fact that
the U.S. has not done its share in funding
or promoting better access to medicines in
the Global South and has broken its
promises to increase AIDS funding.
Two breakout sessions concluded the
conference: Matt Kavanagh gave advice on
launching an advocacy campaign; and Jane
Andrews from Johns Hopkins University
and Laura Musselwhite from Duke
instructed attendees on the art of writing
editorials as well as letters to Congress.
October 8-9, 2010 was a great weekend!
Thank you to UNC and Duke UAEMers
for hosting an exciting and inspiring 2010
Annual Conference!
Thanks to Krista Cox, UAEM Staff Attorney,
for contributing this article.
Participants gather at the end of the UAEM
Conference at UNC Chapel Hill to take a group
picture. Photo courtesy of Pavak Shah.
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Krista Cox
UAEM Staff Attorney
Greetings once again, UAEMers! November and December will be exciting months for our Bayh-Dole related project, filled with
meetings, a symposium and an amicus brief to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on the issue of gene patenting.
In early November, UAEM hosted a symposium for scholars, experts and civil society groups and discussed the Bayh-Dole model and
best practices for regulating publicly financed research. With participants from all over the globe and from different academic
backgrounds, we had an engaging and productive meeting that laid the foundation for an alternative to the Bayh-Dole model. This
symposium, co-hosted by MSF-India’s Access to Medicines project, was held in Delhi, India on November 8-9. After our meetings in
India conclude, I traveled to Thailand to meet with activists and civil society groups who were not able to attend our Bayh-Dole
symposium to get their input on our project.
In early December, UAEM will file an amicus brief to the Federal Circuit in the Association for Molecular Pathology v. U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office case (also known as ACLU v. Myriad Genetics in the media). Back in March, Judge Sweet of the Southern District of
New York held that Myriad’s patents for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes or the “breast cancer genes” were invalid. The USPTO had
previously granted Myriad’s applications for patents on these genes, but Judge Sweet ruled that the patents represented “isolated DNA”
and were therefore products of nature which could not be patented.
The NIH had funded 2 million dollars to the University of Utah and provided six researchers from the National Institute for
Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) who worked on the identification of BRCA1. Prior to the case landing before Judge Sweet, a
dispute arose between Myriad and NIH over the exclusion of the NIEHS scientists as co-inventors; although Myriad did agree to list
NIEHS scientists as co-inventors and pay royalties, no royalties had been paid as of 2005. Because of the NIH funding, the research fell
under the scope of the Bayh-Dole Act and the University of Utah provided an exclusive license over the genes to Myriad.
In finding Myriad’s patents invalid, the Southern District of New York found precedent established that “purification of a product of
nature, without more, cannot transform it into patentable subject matter” and in order for such a product to find patent eligibility, it
must have “markedly different characteristics” from its natural form. Ultimately, the district court held that Myriad’s claims focused on
products of nature and therefore could not receive patent protection. Furthermore, the actual process of isolating the BRCA1/2 gene
involved the mere application of techniques well known to those practicing genetics (the “basic scientific method”) and therefore also
could not receive patent protection.
UAEM’s amicus brief in favor of ACLU/PUBPAT’s position will argue that isolated DNA should not be patent eligible because these
genes are products of nature, a category which has never received patent protection. Furthermore, UAEM’s amicus brief will distinguish
itself from other amici in the case because of UAEM’s interest in the fact that these genes were researched through NIH grants, with
NIEHS scientists, and discovered at the University of Utah. The case implicates the Bayh-Dole Act in addition to many other issues of
concern to UAEM including: access to diagnostic tests, patent thickets, future development and research, the differences between
upstream and downstream research, and the problems created by overly-broad definitions of patent subject matter eligibility.
As always, I want to remind UAEMers that we have no shortage of interesting projects and we are currently seeking student help. This is
your chance to get involved in a set of very important issues and make a tangible difference. We are looking for people to get involved at
all types of commitment levels. If you are interested in intellectual property or another aspect of access to medicines issues or want to
help on this project, Please contact me at [email protected] to get involved!
Thanks to Krista Cox, UAEM Staff Attorney, for contributing this article.
Act Now to Ban “Pay-for-Delay”!
The Federal Trade Commission released a report in 2010 which
showed that patent litigation settlements with compensation
(Pay-for-Delay) are becoming more common, and on average
delay the entry of generic drugs by nearly 17 months. Because
generic drugs cost anywhere between 60%-99% less than brand
name drugs, economists estimate that these deals will cost U.S.
consumers $35 - $75 Billion over the next 10 years. Protecting
brand name drugs that are cost-prohibitive delays access to more
affordable treatments for vulnerable populations with limited
income in the U.S. and abroad. Domestically, these settlements
limit the prescribing choices of physicians and hurt quality of
care. Internationally, delayed access to generic drugs can cost
thousands of lives. Furthermore, these settlements hurt
innovation by allowing brand-name companies to continue
charging high prices for drugs that are protected by weak patents. As all of us know, competition rather than collusion fosters
creativity. Please take action now by going to tinyurl.com/banPFD and
send an email to your Senators and Representatives urging them
to support a ban on Pay-for-Delay.
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¡Olá de Brasil!
Brazil is a huge country, financially and culturally speaking. Despite that, its social and economic disparities are substantial. As an
international player, Brazil has actively participated in discussions related to international trade and how intellectual property rights may
influence access to knowledge and essential medicines. Additionally, Brazil has innovative and manufacturing potential in several areas
including in the health care and pharmaceutical industries. These have been enlarged by new investment trends, qualified academic and private
research institutions, as well as a rich local biodiversity.
Over the years, national industrial capacity has been built and improved with the aim of achieving
national sustainability and global trade competition. Recent innovation law and policies,
governmental stability, and a national Science, Technology and Innovation (ST&I) plan have created
a positive local environment for investments and new partnerships. In this context, universities play
a crucial rule influencing access to medicines and development of new technologies.
Unfortunately, modern Brazilian society highly values an individualistic and business-centered
mindset which has brought about a decrease in student activism around social disparity issues.
Having said that, now is the perfect time for UAEM to reach out to Brazilian students and show
them new ways in which universities can contribute to society’s development and can work as a
social instrument to influence the reality of Brazilian health policies. In order to accomplish this,
UAEM member Priscilla Cesar created an international conference in Brazil followed by a strategic
meeting to launch and discuss UAEM ideas related to access to medicines, social responsible
University of São Paulo Faculty of Law
licensing policies, and the role of universities in Brazil. The inaugural event was held at the
building. Photo courtesy of Pavak Shah.
University of São Paulo (USP) on August 17-18th, with support from the Fords Foundation Brazil.
The first day consisted of a number of presentations that set the background for the state of access to medicines in Brazil and globally. Esteemed professors from USP, members of Brazilian civil society, DNDi-Brazil and UAEMers Rachel Kiddell-Monroe, Ethan Guillen and
Louis Fazen (Yale), came together for the first time to discuss Brazil’s state of access to medicines. The conference energized a wonderful
group of students from across Brazil who have enthusiastically taken up the cause and put in place a plan for moving forward in establishing
and growing chapters and setting and advocacy agenda. The five conference panels provided the participants with incredible insight into
direction UAEM-Brazil would move in the years to come. The panels addressed the following topics: access to medicines and the right to
health; intellectual property rights and access to medicines; strategies for licensing to improve access and compulsory licensing; and, the place
of innovation, research, social responsibility and transparency in our universities. Panelists included: Dr. Sueli Gandolfi Dallari (Professor,
Public Health Faculty – University of São Paulo), Dr. Kevin Outterson (Associate Professor, Boston Law School), Dr. Pedro Chequer
(Coordinator UNAIDSBrasil), Dr. Maryanne Fenerjian (Director of Technology Transfer Policy – Harvard University) and Dr. José R.
Carvalheiro (Researcher of CDTS-Fiocruz and Ministry of Health, Professor of Social Medicine).
During the second day strategizing session, Rachel, Ethan and Bucky introduced Brazilian students to UAEM’s vision, mission and values
as well as experiences from some UAEM’s chapters that are participating in the different Working Groups. Other topics were discussed
including Brazilian student activism and the Brazilian cultural, social, political, economic and academic reality that should be taken into
account in order to establish UAEM chapters in Brazil. An action plan was drafted to translate the ideas discussed at the conference into
practical actions.
Students in Brazil have since formed interdisciplinary research groups focused on Public Health, Brazilian Innovation Law, Activism/
Empowerment and Intellectual Property Rights related to access to medicines. Our aim is to map the Brazilian university reality to propose
better technology transfer practices and legislation as well as to strengthen the interaction between them. UAEM chapters have already been
started in a few states (São Paulo, Santa Catarina and Pernambuco). It is essential to have chapters in multiple regions of the country since
Brazil varies dramatically in social, cultural and economic characteristics.
The students have been promoting UAEM’s purpose to members of civil society, professors, technology transfer professionals, and
fellow students in order to change the Brazilian mentality regarding the role of universities in access to medicines.
UAEM chapters in Brazil are really excited about the 2011 Global Access Meeting participants gather on the second day to develop a
to Medicines Month, which will between February and March of 2011, and strategy for UAEM in Brazil.
have already started planning their events and activities. They are hoping to
take the opportunity to publicize their ideas in Brazil that things, particularly
related to health issues, are not quite right and therefore something ought to
be done to change them.
To wrap things up, everyone is very glad to say that UAEM has come
South, UAEM is certainly here to stay. Nos vemos no Brasil! (See you in Brazil!)
Thanks to Mário Godoy from UAEM Brazil for contributing this article.
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How Great a Change a Year Can Bring
One year ago, UAEM welcomed the launch of the Statement of Principles and Strategies for Equitable Dissemination of Medical
Technologies (SPS) by Harvard, Yale, BU, UPenn, Brown, and OHSU, with excitement – and with trepidation. While the SPS made
strides to mandate global access licensing in all Harvard technology transfer operations, loopholes weakened the policy: most
glaringly, the ability to exclude middle-income, manufacturing countries such as India, China and Brazil, and an inadequate focus on
generic provision as the best mechanism toward accessibility in developing countries. Equally disturbingly, UAEM had been largely
shut out of discussions during the crafting of the SPS, and our relations with the Office of Technology Development (OTD) were
cool at best.
The game seemed to change after the launch of the SPS. Buoyed by the tremendous energy and publicity sustained by our partner
organization, Harvard Global Health and AIDS Coalition’s Say Yes to Drugs Campaign, UAEM sent a strong message to our
university: the manner of implementation of the SPS was far more important than than its endorsement. In response, a semi-annual
meeting schedule was instated in order to formalize collaboration between UAEM and Harvard’s OTD. In our first such meeting in
April 2010, we were pleased to view a “toolkit” of licensing terms that the OTD had developed to address SPS implementation, to
hear that SPS negotiations were underway for three pending licenses, and to improve our relations with the OTD.
On November 3, 2010, the second semi-annual UAEM-OTD meeting brought a further update on completed and ongoing
negotiations and a significant deepening of our collaboration moving forward. Overall, UAEM was pleased and impressed by the
results achieved in negotiations so far, and by the transparency with which each license was described to us in the context of key
points of the SPS. Importantly, SPS terms are applied to all medically related technologies, including many very early-stage
technologies with potential application for diagnostics or vaccines.
In its recent biomedical license agreements, Harvard has successfully reserved the right to decline to file, maintain, or enforce patents
in developing countries. Other global access tools that Harvard has deployed include diligence obligations that require the licensee to
make its product available at locally affordable prices or risk march-in by Harvard, a humanitarian use exemption that enables
Harvard to grant licenses directly to qualified nonprofit organizations, and positive financial incentives for the locally-affordable
distribution of products in developing countries.
The terms presented are promising, but “developing countries” included thus far have excluded the World Bank-defined “HigherMiddle Income” countries including Brazil, South Africa, Russia, and Mexico (and which, disturbingly, may include China upon the
lists’s next review). A priority of UAEM will be to push for full middle-income country inclusion as SPS implementation becomes the
norm. Progress on Metrics is less promising as Harvard OTD prefers our semi-annual meeting as the primary venue for transparency
and reporting. Since all technology transfer offices fill out AUTM’s annual survey, inclusion of UAEM Metrics with AUTM’s may
provide a solution.
The first biennial review of the SPS is coming up a year from now. A thorough and sustained push from UAEM will be needed to
ensure that SPS revision moves forward, never backward. We're excited that the OTD agreed to have UAEM play an advisory role in
SPS revision and solicited any advice we can offer on the process. Several UAEM comments were well-received, including a call to
feature the SPS more prominently on the OTD website, and in describing SPS terms in the OTD’s guide to scientists and inventors.
The OTD solicited UAEM’s help on several other issues. First, we were urged to address funding foundation such as Gates and Doris
Duke, lobbying these institutions to make funding contingent on SPS-like provisions on the final product of research. Second,
policing “local affordability” is a tall order which cannot be left to self-policing efforts by licensees; our creative thoughts on this are
needed and welcome. Third, UAEM can empower nonprofit organizations to use the humanitarian exemption clause by identifying
which technologies are covered by such terms. Fourth, UAEM outreach to scientists, especially new inventors, is welcome to
encourage entrepreneurial academics not to push back against SPS terms when negotiating their licensing deals. Fifth, UAEM
outreach to pharma and venture capitalists would go far in convincing these licensees that global access licensing is not a “poison
pill.” Finally, our new chapters in emerging economies (ie, Ukraine) could also help address industry concerns about parallel
importation (ie, to the EU.)
The OTD’s main call for collaboration, though, was in expanding the SPS – a perfect fit with this year’s GAMM. Memorably, OTD
Director Isaac Kohlberg remarked that “you guys [UAEM] are very effective.” According to the OTD, achieving the strongest
provisions of the SPS will be far easier if other key campuses endorse it. These might include MIT, UC, Columbia and Stanford. Chapters at these campuses: roll up your sleeves! Two chapter leaders from MIT UAEM participated in order to train for their own
campaign, and we look forward to working together.
While we welcome the progress so far, much work lies ahead in vigilance and advising on OTD activities. We look forward to sharing
our work with other chapters – especially those who had faced significant obstacles – and re-emphasize that yes, it is possible to
change the game.
Thanks to Karolina Maciag from UAEM Harvard/MIT for contributing this article.
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Chapter Corner
UNC Adopts Global Access Principles
In early 2008, a UNC UAEM student met one on one with Mark Crowell, then
director of UNC’s Office of Technology Development (OTD). Mark said he
wanted UNC to be one of the leading universities on this topic, and would be
interested in future meetings with UAEM. That spring, 5 UNC students met
with Mark and other members of OTD with the goal of promoting a UNC
global access statement. UNC-Chapel Hill Global Access Principles
We reviewed UAEM’s goals, reviewed recent responsible licensing innovations,
and discussed the existing global access statements from UW, UC-Berkeley, and
UBC. OTD explained that 'policies' and 'principles' are approved differently;
approval of principles is simpler and quicker. They also said a blanket policy
would meet resistance because every licensing case is different, and OTD would
not commit to something that might unwittingly and unwisely tie its
hands. Finally, OTD pointed out that the existing global access statements from
other universities lacked any real teeth, and questioned to some extent the value
of approving a toothless document. In accordance, the University holds public access
and societal benefit to be the primary goals of
technology transfer and recognizes that the
patenting, licensing, and publication of its healthrelated innovations present opportunities to
increase their global accessibility and improve the
condition of human life.
Deciding to push forward some type of principles statement, we argued that
while technically “toothless”, a principles statement would publicly express
UNC’s philosophy and exert influence to that extent. Mark and the others
agreed. When Mark soon left for a job at Scripps Research Institute, Cathy Innes
became director of OTD and helped us prepare our draft of the Global Access
Principles for approval by Vice Chancellor for Research Dr. Tony
Waldrop. After revisions, Tony presented the document to the chancellor and
necessary committees and received approval. In summer of 2010 OTD then
posted the Global Access Principles on its webpage. The educational process of
interacting with UAEM has led OTD to place access clauses in some licenses,
but the real future challenge for UNC is monitoring and improving compliance
with the principles.
It is part of the mission statement of The
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to
"address, as appropriate, regional, national and
international needs."
We therefore support:
• research and development for neglected
problems for which traditional commercial
incentives may be insufficient to meet social
needs
• open-access publication of university
research
• commercial partners who share a clear
commitment to human welfare
• patent applications only if and where
appropriate
• license language that ultimately results in
greater access to technologies, especially in
developing countries and among
disadvantaged populations
Thanks to Derek Lundberg from UAEM UNC for contributing this article.
Students Push for IP Policy Change at Manchester University
Last week, the UAEM Manchester chapter launched its petition campaign to push for a change in the IP policy at the University of
Manchester. The university was ranked as one the top research institutes in the UK and Europe by both the 2010 Jiao Tong World
University Rankings as well as the Research Assessment Exercise in 2008 in the UK and is known for its high quality biomedical research.
Currently, the University of Manchester’s IP policy has no safeguards in place to ensure that its patents will be affordable to the poor in
developing nations. We believe that a change in the IP policy at the University of Manchester according to the Global Access Licensing
Framework is not only vital, but also financially feasible and sustainable. We have done extensive research on the feasibility of such a change
and believe that our stance can stand up to scrutiny. Since 1986, the University of Manchester has filed for over 400 medically relevant
patents. Nevertheless, since 2000 the University of Manchester has not received any payments in connection with its biomedical patents.
We therefore believe that by changing its IP policy, the university could make a lasting difference to
potentially thousands of people without any financial repercussions. The University of
Manchester’s 2015 Agenda states as its third goal ‘to make the University a force for good, locally,
nationally and internationally, by bringing knowledge to bear on the great issues facing the world in
the 21st century…’. We believe that the global essential medicines crisis is one of the biggest and
most pressing issues of the 21st century and we implore the leaders of the university of to make a
difference to many people’s lives by changing its intellectual property rights policy and make
medicines researched and discovered at the University of Manchester available at affordable prices.
Please support our campaign by signing our online petition at uaemmanchester.com!
Thanks to Waldemar Ockert from UAEM Manchester for contributing this article.
Check out
www.uaemmanchester.com
and sign their online petition.
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Remembering a Dear Friend: Sujal Parikh
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In Memoriam
UAEM's dear friend, Sujal Parikh, passed away on October 12th from injuries
sustained in a serious traffic accident in Uganda, where he was Fogarty International
Clinical Research Scholar. It is with a great deal of heartache that we grieve his
untimely passing. Sujal was an active member of the UAEM chapter at the University of Michigan and
a tireless advocate for the health and wellbeing of people worldwide. Sujal had served
in health clinics in rural Uganda, written extensively about global health issues, and in
general had dedicated his life to eradicating global health inequities. To say his passing
is a loss to our community and the world at large is an understatement.
It is, of course, a personal loss to the many of us who knew him for his caring
friendship, open heart, and infectious passion for life. We will not soon heal from his
passing but can hold on tightly to his memory to inspire our own lives.
The greatest service we can pay to Sujal’s memory is to continue to champion the
causes he worked so hard for. UAEM can forward any comments or condolences to
Sujal’s parents. Please send anything you would like to share with Sujal’s parents or
have posted in this remembrance space to [email protected]. If
you have any pictures of Sujal you would like to share, please send them to same
email address and we will post them to this page. We will also share photos with
friends who are gathering them to share with Sujal’s parents.
A memorial fund has been set up and donations are accepted here: http://
www.giving.umich.edu/give/med-parikh. Sujal's parents will decide how the funds February 22, 1985 - October 12, 2010
will be spent in the coming weeks. Please note that the donor can mark the box
labeled, "My gift is in honor/memory of someone" in order to make it a true
Risk more than others think is safe,
memorial gift. Even though the gift is being directed to the named fund, some
Care more than others think is wise,
donors like to specify that it is indeed in Sujal's memory.
Dream more than others think is practical,
Sujal's own inspirational blog is here: http://sujalparikh.blogspot.com/.
Expect more than others think is possible.
Thanks to Ethan Guillen for contributing this article.
-Claude Bissel
Sujal Parikh
Universities Allied for
Essential Medicines
2010-2011 Coordinating Committee
Board of Directors
Advisory Board
Aria Ilyad Ahmad
Rachel Kiddell-Monroe, President
Virginia Zaunbrecher
Sandeep Kishore
Samantha Chaifetz
Huguette Ekambi Mbella
Christopher Maddocks
Rebecca LeGrand
Rebecca Goulding
Dave Chokshi
Kavitha Kolappa
Ady Barkan
Connie Chen
Rachel Belt
Jane Andrews
Paul Park, Treasurer
Paul Maurizio, Corporate Secretary
Yochai Benkler
Dr. Paul Farmer
Ellen ‘t Hoen
Sir John Sulston
Dr. Anthony So
Amy Kapczynski
Pratik Chhetri
Louis Fazen
Taylor Gilliland
Christina Laird
Mathieu Létourneau
Karolina Maciag
Zion Maffeo
Laura Musselwhite
Andreas Pilarinos
Shaan Sheth
Gloria Tavera
Carolyn Treasure
Steven Witte
Alice Zheng
Web: www.essentialmedicine.org
Email: [email protected]
Mailing Address: 2625 Alcatraz Avenue, #180, Berkeley, CA 94705
Interested in starting a UAEM
chapter on your campus? Go to
http://www.essentialmedicine.org/
chapter/ and fill out the form “Join
UAEM” at the bottom. A member of
the Chapter Outreach team will soon
contact you on how to bring UAEM
to your college or university. Be sure
to check out the Chapter Resources
link on the site above!
7
UNIVERSITIES ALLIED FOR ESSENTIAL MEDICINES
2625 Alcatraz Avenue, #180
Berkeley, CA 94705