Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) is hosting an online panel event discussing the potential of open-source R&D in tackling the Access to Medicines crisis on Oct. 12, 2021, 4:30 p.m. – 6 p.m. UTC (5:30 p.m – 7 p.m. BST)

Approximately one third of the world’s population doesn’t have access to essential medicines. In the poorest countries, this figure rises to half. This online panel discussion will explore how open-source R&D can be utilized to improve accessibility to medical products and drive innovation based on global health needs.

Panelists (announced weekly) have backgrounds in policy, research and industry and will be discussing the benefits of this approach, the barriers that face effective open-source R&D, and how people working at any stage of the R&D pipeline can use open-source approaches in their work. The event will touch on how open-source R&D has been used in the COVID-19 pandemic, and how we can apply lessons learned in the pandemic to all medicines, vaccines and diagnostics in the future.

The first speakers to be announced are Dr. Alpha Lee, of Covid Moonshot, and Dr. Els Torreele, former executive director of MSF Access Campaign and experienced researcher and advocate on Medical Innovation & Access.  Check out UAEM’s social media platforms for a short biography about the speakers, and for further updates on the event here. More speakers will be announced each week leading up to the webinar.

The event is aimed at students, researchers, advocacy workers, policy makers, medical professionals, industry professionals and more. So, if you want to explore how open-source methods could ignite innovation, increase the quality of scientific research or reshape the R&D system, sign up for this FREE event now.

The Zoom link will be sent to registered attendees closer to the event.

Accessibility: The event will be held on Zoom, with automatically generated captions. There will also be a recorded version on YouTube. After registration, instructions of how to join the event will be distributed to registered attendees. If you have any questions or specific requirements, please contact use eventbrite contact form.