Over 60 members of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) picketed outside of President Ronald Daniels's home to protest Hopkins's drug and medical technologies policy last Saturday.
"It's really important that leadership universities like Hopkins do more preventative measures to make sure global access is possible," Kaci Hickox, a UAEM member and student at the Hopkins School of Public Health, said.
While protesters sought a stark policy change, the immediate goal of the protest was to convince the University to sign the "Statement of Principles and Strategies for the Equitable Dissemination of Medical Technologies," a document outlining policy practices that the group claims will improve universal access to medical technologies. Authored by the Association of University Technology Managers two years ago, the Statement has been endorsed by 26 institutions, including Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the National Institutes of Health.
Protesters felt that current Hopkins policy prevents patients in developing nations from benefiting from medical discoveries made at the University. According to protesters, Hopkins's licensing contracts with pharmaceutical companies typically allow the companies exclusive rights to produce and market a drug.
The group feels that while these drugs may be financially within reach for relatively affluent patients, they are not accessible to most people in developing nations.
The protest was held as part of UAEM's annual conference, hosted at the Hopkins Medical Campus this year.
UAEM is a non-profit group aimed at improving medical access in developing countries by seeking change in university patent and licensing policies nationwide.
UAEM members from across the globe attended the conference and protest, such as UAEM member Jessica Liu, who traveled from Brazil.
"It's very important to populations in poverty that they have access to medicine because it may be their last chance to survive," Liu said. "It's very important to motivate countries. . . to fight for access for medicine [and] to make the drugs cheaper."
Starting from the Keyser Quad, protesters marched to the Freshmen Quad shouting as they went. Chants included, "Medical access for all" and "No access, no peace." At the Freshmen Quad, protesters shouted their grievances into a megaphone.
"How much longer will we stall? Global licensing for all," they shouted.
The protesters then walked to Daniels's home on the Homewood Campus to continue their shouts and chants and gain the attention of the University president.
"Why won't you sign the SPS?" one UAEM from South Africa shouted.
To conclude their protest, UAEM members built a stack of empty pill bottles at the president's front door. Each bottle was printed with a label listing Daniels as the doctor, the world as the patient and greater medical technology access as the prescription.
"[It represents Hopkins] leaving the world's poor with empty pill bottles," Tyler Brown, a UAEM member, Hopkins medical school student and one of the organizers of the conference and protest, said.
As the protesters left the president's home, Hopkins security personnel arrived on scene. Initially some protesters attempted to engage in conversation with security personnel; however, other protesters told each other to ignore the security personnel and walk away, which most promptly did. Hopkins security engaged in no further interaction with the crowd.
"It was a brief and orderly and respectful expression of opinion and there was no trouble of any sort," Dennis O'Shea, University Spokesperson, said. "[There were] no concerns."
The UAEM has been discussing the issue with the University for, at least, the past year and has been met with encouraging feedback.
"The University has been reasonably responsive to our concerns," Brown said. "We've had very good dialogue."
"We want discussion to turn into action as soon as possible," Brown said.
The UAEM sees the current climate as ripe for change.
"We've really seen universities turn a corner," Brown said, citing the growing number of signatories of the Statement of Principles and Strategies. "It's a tipping point."
However, according to O'Shea, there have been no plans for implementing any changes.
"I'm not aware of [any changes to policy]," O'Shea said.
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