Members of UAEM at the North American Leadership Meeting hosted by Ohio States UAEM chapter. Credit: Courtesy of Nickolas Marchel
The Undergraduate Student Government unanimously passed a resolution urging Ohio State to adopt licensing policies that would make university-developed medicines more affordable and accessible.
The resolution, titled 57-R-XX and passed March 19, adopts policies created through the Affordable Access Plan — a licensing framework agreement developed by Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, a student-led organization that spans 100 universities across 20 countries. The resolution would require companies that license medical technologies from Ohio State to include strategies for affordability in low- and middle-income countries, as well as within low-income U.S. populations, per prior Lantern reporting.
The resolution was a joint effort by USG Senators Ethan Dobres, Declan Alford and Shyla Mudundi, along with UAEM members Nick Marchal, Samiksha Prasanna, Siya Gulia and Zara Haque.
Dobres, also a third-year in finance, said in an email he feels proud of the collaboration between USG and UAEM representatives.
“This was the first time during my stint in USG where passionate students reached out and worked with us to pass a resolution,” Dobres said. “I was very impressed by their extensive research and interest in this issue. UAEM does incredible work and I hope the university will listen to their concerns.”
March 19, students gathered at USG’s 57th General Assembly to provide testimonies highlighting Ohio State’s role in medical research and growing concerns regarding accessible health care.
“Currently, a drug that taxpayers — the families of plenty of students at this school — spent 3.8 million dollars to develop acalabrutinib, a new cancer drug that offers hope to patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia,” Prasanna, a third-year in public health sociology, said during the testimony. “Today, it costs these patients over $194,000 a year. That is an access problem that originated right here at OSU.”
Acalabrutinib — better known by its brand name, Calquence — treats rare forms of blood cancer, including CLL. It was developed at Ohio State and received FDA approval in 2019, per prior Lantern reporting.
Along with the acalabrutinib, other testimonies attracted attention to the drug Zolgensma.
Zolgensma is a gene therapy drug prescribed to children under 2 years old in order to treat spinal muscular atrophy, according to its website.
“They would then be faced with the 2.1 million dollar cost for a single treatment. Approximately one in 6,000 to one in 10,000 children are born with SMA,” Gulia, a first-year in environment, economy, development and sustainability, said. “This is a complete reality for those parents and loved ones, but the price tag is simply unfeasible and unacceptable.”
Marchal, a third-year in biomedical science, emphasized the initiative’s goals of affordability and accessibility.
“What does it mean to have innovation if the people who need it most can’t access it?” Marchal said.
Dobres said the resolution passed unanimously through the Justice and Equity Committee March 15, the Steering Committee March 17 and finally the General Assembly.
“Each vote was unanimous, showing that the USG legislative branch is united behind making drugs produced at OSU more accessible to all,” Dobres said. “We wanted to make it clear that health care equity is a priority for our student body and our community as a whole.”
The AAP is modeled after licensing language previously adopted by universities such as UCLA, UC Berkeley, Harvard and Columbia, per prior Lantern reporting.
“I feel like this is a necessary conversation to be having, and I feel like the Affordable Access Plan — already being adopted by other high-caliber, high-spending research universities that are very close to the kind of high-caliber research that happens at Ohio State — I feel like it’s a logical first step through Ohio State to kind of being a stronger advocate for global affordability and accessibility,” Marchal said.
Though the March 19 passage through the general assembly is a step forward for UAEM and its core goals, Dobres said he is still concerned about the university following through on its adoption.
“My hope is that this resolution won’t just be talk, but instead turn into real action that makes health care more equitable,” Dobres said. “It would be great to see Ohio State follow the lead of other universities around the country and adopt an Affordable Access Plan.”
Marchal said the next steps for the university’s adoption are to continue to follow up with the Office of Student Life regarding its progress.
“We’re really excited about our next meeting,” Marchel said. “We now have the student body support for this resolution, so we have a little more of a voice than just me and the three other students who might be on the call, which is exciting.”
