The controversial Protection and Utilization of Public Funded Intellectual Property Bill, set to threaten access to medicines and future innovative research

Berkeley, CA – Despite appeals from Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM), and other public interest groups, the Indian government has refused to modify a secretly drafted legislation that would govern the patenting of the results of publicly funded-research including publicly-funded medical research. As it currently stands, the Bill will harm access to medicines and impede the ability of scientists to conduct innovative research due to a lack of measures to protect the public interest.

The Indian government made only cosmetic changes to the legislation: the Bill still removes publicly-funded innovations from the public sphere and permits monopoly pricing on publicly-funded products without any effective safeguards to protect the public interest. The legislation is modeled on the US Bayh-Dole Act which has led to a proliferation of patenting activity and the creation of patent thickets. These create barriers to new innovative research and fail to protect the interests of American taxpayers who end up subsidizing the discovery of medicines they are often then unable to afford.

Proponents of the Indian Bill claim it will help India to commercialize publicly-funded research by encouraging research institutions to seek patents. As a UAEM white paper on a recent version of the bill argues, the law duplicates the failures of the US Bayh-Dole act and in fact offers even fewer access protections. To read the entire white paper, visit http://www.essentialmedicine.org/bayh-dole/.

“UAEM is very disappointed in the government’s push to enact this flawed legislation. In consultation with the public, the government must make the changes necessary to avoid replicating the failures of Bayh-Dole,” said Ethan Guillen, Executive Director of UAEM. “We continue to urge the Indian government to reconsider its position on this legislation as it threatens the health and welfare of the very public who fund this critical research.”

Contact: Anjali Dalal
Phone: 610.823.2526
Email: anjali.dalal@yale.edu

As the leader in academic research and technology transfer, the UC system can do much to increase access to essential medicines

Berkeley, CA - Nearly 1,000 students, faculty and staff from seven of the ten University of California campuses demonstrated their support of global access licensing of UC-developed medicines by signing letters to UC President Mark Yudof that were delivered to his office by UAEM students last week. In these letters, members of the University of California community asked President Yudof to implement a global access policy to make the products of UC research available to those in the developing world. Such a policy would ensure that every relevant university technology is licensed as part of an effective and transparent strategy to make affordable versions available in quantity to those in most desperate need. During this effort students were also giving presentations to the UC Regents on the issue of access to essential medicines and meeting with representatives from the UC Office of the President. If you would like to learn more or sign an electronic copy of the letter please follow the links below:

To send a letter: http://www.essentialmedicine.org/uc/
For more information: http://www.essentialmedicine.org/chapters/california/yudofbackground/