Access To Medicines Week

Every year 10 million people die simply because they cannot access medicines that already exist.

A third of the world’s population does not have access to the most basic essential medicines and in the poorest regions of Africa and Asia this figure rises to one-half.

What can we do about this?

Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) is a coalition of students and faculties across North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia, united with the common goal of improving access to medicines in the developing world.

Our mission is to promote access to medicines and medical innovations in low and middle-income countries by changing norms and practices around academic patenting and licensing, supported by our own independent research. We aim to ensure that university medical research meets the needs of people worldwide, and that students are empowered to respond to the access and innovation crisis.

The 1^st – 7^th November 2014 marks Access to Medicines (A2M) Week, the week in which Universities Allied for Essential Medicines will be asking the public whether or not access to essential medicines is a luxury or a human right.

This upcoming A2M Week is our first campaign to run on university cities and campuses simultaneously throughout Europe. Our goal is to make university students and members of the public ask themselves, “how can I make an impact on the Access to Medicines crisis?” and assess the way their universities manage their policies in research and development.

UAEM Manchester welcomes you to find out more, and take part in our A2M Week events! We will be hosting a free screening of Fire in the Blood, a film about medicine, monopoly and malice, at 6pm on Thursday 6^th November, Samuel Alexander A113. Here you can find out more about Access to Medicines issues and how you can campaign to make a difference.

For further information about the events happening during A2M week visit www.a2m-week.org, or e-mail [email protected].

Twitter: @uaem

Facebook: www.facebook.com/UAEMpage

 Article provided by Georgia Liddle from Student Stop Aids Campaign.