Upcoming events.
FOIA Advocacy Webinar
Since UAEM's founding in 2001, student advocates have fought to change norms and practices in academic patenting and licensing through advocating for transparency in university licensing practices. One tool by which advocates can achieve this end is the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
What is the Freedom of Information Act? How can you use it to understand your university's licensing practices and if they're following through on their public interest mission? Join our webinar on Thursday, May 22, 2025 at 8:30pm EST / 5:30pm PST where members of UAEM North America's Access Team - Rahil and Daniel - will explain:
FOIA's history and importance to our work
The California Public Records Act & how to submit a request
Avenues for obtaining transparency from private universities
ETAF Webinar
Since UAEM was founded in 2001, student advocates have worked with technology transfer offices (TTOs) to develop an array of concrete licensing strategies that increase global access to medicines. Our latest framework is the Equitable Technology Access Framework (ETAF).
What is the ETAF? How can you get it adopted on your campus? Join our webinar this Friday, in which two members of UAEM's North America Access Team—Sahil and Vanessa—will explain:
Previous approaches to global access licensing
The ETAF's goals, principles, and provisions
Strategies to advocate the ETAF to TTOs
UAEM North America Annual Meeting
Join us for the UAEM North America Annual Meeting! Get a briefing on Access to Medicines Week, meet candidates for UAEM North America’s Board of Directors, and more!
North America All Chapters Call
Join UAEM North America Coordinating Committee members and Chapter leaders for a training and conversation at our 2024 Fall All Chapters Call!
Why join?
- Learn a bit about our work across North America
- Learn chapter building strategy
- Connect with chapter leaders
Who should attend? Your executive board/chapter leadership - and/or bring your whole chapter (feel free to meet in a shared space with everyone!)
Start: Tuesday, September 24, 2024 at 8:00 PM ET
End: Tuesday, September 24, 2024 at 10:00 PM ET
Virtual event: A link to attend this virtual event will be emailed upon RSVP
Host Contact Info: Chapters@uaem.org
Chapter Empowerment Roadmap: Phase 1
This program aims to empower rising and re-activating chapters through a series of training sessions. During these sessions, chapter leaders will be introduced to UAEM principles, communicate with the CC members for assistance, and receive resources they can use in their chapters.
Cohorts
Your chapter will be trained as a cohort along with other chapters across North America. Some training sessions will be conducted with the entire cohort, while others will be with your chapter only.
Getting a chapter started or trying to reinvigorate a chapter is a challenging task. Training with other chapters will provide a great opportunity for everyone to help each other, build connections, and power through the journey together!
Phase 1 Meeting:
The meeting will occur with all new chapter leaders simultaneously, as it'll provide general information that pertains to all new chapters. This will be an excellent chance to meet other new chapters as well! Sign up below to be a part of our next Chapter Empowerment Cohort!
Main Goals
Introduction to UAEM: History, values, work.
How to register on the UAEM website.
Introduce our Chapter Handbook & other tools!
Science for Humanity: Innovation, Access, Affordability
Join us for the 2024 UAEM North America Conference, hosted at Johns Hopkins University from March 29-31 in Baltimore, MD!
Access to Medicines Policies: Universities are Key
Join UAEM North American Coordinating Committee Members in an informational presentation about the Equitable Technology Access Framework and how it can be implemented at universities!
North America FUNdraising Webinar
Join UAEM North America to learn how to fundraise for our Giving Tuesday Fundraiser, and how to compete for prizes!
RSVP here (after you RSVP, you’ll be directed to make a fundraising page, you can skip to that directly here):
Garden Soiree to Benefit Universities Allied for Essential Medicines
You are cordially invited to attend an evening happy hour to benefit Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) North America, at the home of Sarah Rapawy.
A Special Thank you to our Host Committee for making this event possible.
Workshop on Transforming Discoveries into Products: Maximizing NIH’s Levers to Catalyze Technology Transfer
NIH will host a virtual workshop on July 31, 2023, to discuss policies and practices that shape biomedical innovation and promote access to NIH-funded discoveries. Goals will include discussing how NIH, as a research institution, approaches the patenting and licensing of biomedical inventions. There will also be discussion on the agency’s role in the broader biomedical research enterprise in promoting the application of knowledge to enhance human health.
Details on the workshop, including the agenda and information about viewing the videocast and providing public comment, can be found on the OSP website. Please note that slots for oral comments will be provided in the order they are received until all slots have been filled. In addition to the opportunity to make oral comments during the workshop, NIH invites written comments from the public. For those wishing to have written comments considered prior to the workshop, those comments must be received by July 27, 2023.
Questions may be sent to SciencePolicy@od.nih.gov. Also, please consider following us on Twitter @NIH_OSP
North America Showcase
Join us for the UAEM North America Showcase - hear what our students are up to and how you can get more involved!
Alumni Mixer
Join UAEM North America Alumni for a digital alumni mixer!
Come hear from our UAEM alumni mixer host committee about what they're up to, reconnect with alumni from all over the U.S. and Canada in small groups, and learn about what UAEM is up to in 2023 from our executive director (and UAEM alumnus) Justin Mendoza.
Thank you to our gracious Host Committee for helping to make this possible:
Aly Bancroft, Taylor Gilliland, Gaëlle Groux, Chloé Hogg, Karolina Maciag, Peter Maybarduk, Jason Nickerson, Gloria Tavera, Sophia TonNu, and Samik Upadhaya.
Global Leadership Annual Meeting
It is our pleasure to announce UAEM’s Global Annual Leadership Meeting (GLAM) 2023 will be taking place on Saturday 3rd of June from 3-5pm CEST. Leaders from all UAEM regions are invited to join the online meeting.
A New Standard In University Licensing: Berkeley's Affordable Access Plan
The University of California, Berkeley, in partnership with Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) and the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP), has released and posted a new License agreement template that includes affordable access plan (AAP) provisions for health technologies developed by university researchers.
Global Health Grades Canada Launch
Join the UAEM Canada Report Card Team on Friday, May 5 at 3pm EDT to talk about our new 2023 Report Card. We ranked the U15: Canada's top 15 research universities, based on five factors.
Thursday webinar on Bayh-Dole safeguards including Xtandi march in and government use petition, and federal government review of march in rights
To register, send your name and affiliation (if any) to events@keionline.org.
The panel members will discuss the latest developments in the Xtandi petition case. Xtandi (enzalutamide) is a treatment for prostate cancer that is currently priced three to five times higher in the United States than it is priced in other similar high income countries. Prostate cancer patients Clare Love, David Reed, Robert Sachs, and Eric Sawyer, along with Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, filed a petition to ask that the government use its rights in the federally-funded patented inventions for Xtandi, in order to address the failure by the companies to make the drug “available to the public on reasonable terms.” On March 12, 2023, the NIH, acting on behalf of Secretary Becerra, rejected the petition. On March 23, 2023, the petitioners appealed the NIH decision to Secretacy Becerra.
Simultaneous to the NIH decision in the Xtandi petition, the Biden administration announced a government wide review of the march-in authority. From the HHS press release:
Most recently, the NIH declined a petition to initiate a march-in proceeding for the prostate cancer drug Xtandi®. . . .
Consistent with President Biden’s Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy, the DOC has not finalized any provisions on march-in rights in this revised rule that would have prohibited the government’s use of march-in solely on the basis of product pricing.
HHS will convene a workshop in 2023 to further refine the cases for which HHS could consider exercising march-in authority. HHS will seek input from a diverse array of stakeholders – including patient groups, industry, universities, small business firms, and nonprofit organizations, as well as experts in technology transfer and innovation policy. The goal of the workshop will be to assess when the use of march-in is consistent with the policy and objectives of the Bayh-Dole Act.
We have an excellent panel to discuss these developments and respond to questions from the online audience, including Professor Aaron Kesselheim from Harvard University, Marc Sedam, the former Chair of AUTM, Rob Weissman, the President of Public Citizen, Justin Mendoza, Executive Director of UAEM North America, and James Love of KEI.