Group looks to make medicine cheaper

Penn students have assumed a leading role in an organization aimed at providing cheaper drugs to developing nations.

Universities Allied for Essential Medicine tries to convince universities to stipulate in contracts with pharmaceutical companies that drugs made as a result of the school's research will be cheaply available in developing countries.

Just last month, the University entered a partnership with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca PLC, which will focus on developing antipsychotic medication. Penn received an unknown amount of money from the giant drug company in exchange for greater access to researchers and scientific expertise.

Penn has such relationships with over 200 firms, ties that produce about 10 percent of the University's research funding.

Now, Penn's involvement in the issue is expanding in a different direction. Next year's national meeting of UAEM will likely be held at Penn, and several Penn students wrote the national manual for the group. First-year Medical student Dave Chokshi sits on the national coordinating committee.

Chokshi started the group's Penn chapter last year.

An article Chokshi wrote on the national UAEM organization appeared last week in the journal PLoS Medicine.

First-year Medical student Nick Stine became involved soon after his arrival at Penn. He said that while traveling in South America before arriving at Penn, he "witness[ed] the empty pharmacies and the access gap" and other issues discussed by the group first-hand.

Stine said that students do have an impact on University policy, and that UAEM takes advantage of that. A global difference can result from changes made by the University, he added.

"We're students at universities. ... Our comparative advantage is in lobbying the University," Chokshi said.

Amit Khera, a first-year Medical student also involved with the group, said that Penn puts out so much licensed research that a change in University policy could make a huge difference.

"We've had incredible access to a lot of the top minds in these fields," he said.

This year, the chapter has submitted proposals to Penn President Amy Gutmann's Task Force for Global Engagement, the University Council and the Provost's fund recommending that the University resolve to make drugs more affordable in developing countries.

One key feature of UAEM at Penn is its emphasis on pulling in students from all schools, including the Medical, Nursing, Wharton and Law schools and the College of Arts and Sciences.

"In order to motivate a university to do something that you feel is effective, you want all members of the University to be involved," said first-year Medical student and group member Eric Cioe.

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