Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) was founded in 2001 by Yale students working to convince their university & the pharmaceutical company, Bristol-Myers Squibb, to allow the production of generic versions of an HIV/AIDS drug for use in Sub-Saharan Africa, that would allow a 30x drug price reduction.
Since this initial campaign, UAEM has evolved into an international movement with over 100 chapters in 20 countries around the world. UAEM campaigns focus on utilizing the power of student activism to improve access to and affordability of the life-saving medications researched and developed at universities globally.
Why UAEM at UCLA?
UCLA is a public research university, meaning that its funding comes from tax dollars: all used to conduct research to develop innovative medicines and treatments. The creation of these medications have been paid for by the public, yet are priced at exorbitantly high rates, making them inaccessible to the very people who were taxed to create them.
Our mission as a chapter is to highlight these inequities and injustices within the UCLA community and beyond in order to increase awareness among UCLA students, faculty, and staff. Ultimately, we hope to create tangible change regarding drug pricing of innovations developed at UCLA.