‘Lives Are At Stake’: Students Ask UCLA To Drop Its Patent Fight Over Prostate Drug
Currently, UCLA and others who have stake in the drug are trying to keep generic versions of the drug from entering into the marketplace.
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Students Push UCLA To Improve Access To A Cancer Drug Developed By Its Scientists
Students at UCLA are calling on the university to ease access to a prostate cancer drug developed on campus. The drug, Xtandi, is at the center of a legal battle in India over whether generic competitors can enter the market — a battle in which, students say, the university is on the wrong side. “Lives are at stake and UCLA can and must live up to its mission as a public research university,” Universities Allied for Essential Medicines wrote in a petition to the university system’s president, Janet Napolitano, earlier this month. “By filing this patent claim, UCLA is actively complicit in creating access barriers that are causing harm to prostate cancer patients worldwide.” (Cooney, 3/30)