[media-credit name=’SUNDEEP MALLADI/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Members of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines rallied Friday afternoon on Library Mall, informing students about the need for universities to increase availability of university-innovated drugs for developing countries, namely those directly controlled by the University of Wisconsin.

Students who attended the event were also encouraged to sign their support for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation to accept the Philadelphia Consensus Statement, which calls for universities, including UW, to increase access and promote pharmaceutical research.

Hannah Kirking, a second-year UW medical student, said UAEM would ideally want WARF to ensure developing countries will have access to important UW-developed medicines.

One such drug is Zemplar, a form of synthetic vitamin D that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treating and preventing complications resulting from low blood calcium in chronic kidney disease patients.

"Even if they accepted parts of the Philadelphia Consensus Statement, it would be a huge improvement — it would prevent the problem from even happening in the first place," Kirking said.

According to Katherine Guerra, a member of the UAEM's Madison chapter, the organization started when they first heard about how Abbott Laboratories withdrew the newest form of Zemplar from Thailand after the country granted a license to produce it generically.

After the students became involved, they contacted WARF, which is responsible for the conditions companies like Abbott Laboratories are held to after they acquire the rights to produce the drugs.

UAEM also contacted several Wisconsin state senators, the governor, the lieutenant governor and the drug's inventor, UW researcher Hector DeLuca, to ask for their support.

"I believe it is unfortunate that patients anywhere in the world are denied this wonderful drug because of political reasons," DeLuca wrote in his letter to Abbott Laboratories. "As the inventor, I would merely like to say that I would like this drug to be as widely available to renal (kidney) patients as possible."

According to Kirking, the issue is relevant to UW students because they have the responsibility to make sure new drugs and technologies are available to people worldwide.

"These technologies are being developed with public money, whether it's from grants, or the National Institutes of Health … or tax-payer money," Kirking said.

Guerra said the organization received approximately 45 additional signatures for the Philadelphia Consensus Statement, adding to the hundreds of signatures they already had.

"It went pretty well. It was something that most of the students we talked to were really in support of. They were very positive about the Philadelphia Consensus," Guerra said. "It did take a little while to walk people through it, but we wanted to make sure that everyone who was signing it really did understand what it was all about."

Currently, UAEM plans to write out a request to Abbott Laboratories and seek out their reaction before taking future action.

"Our short-term goal was this rally. Now we are going to reconvene and see where we want to go from here, so we are meeting with WARF again and possibly with state senators," Guerra said. "We are looking into possible ways the Capitol can play a role in this as well, whether it is just a statement of support or legislative actions."