At least ten million lives could be saved every year if existing medicines and vaccines were more available to marginalised and poor communities across the world. Further, insufficient resources are currently directed towards research for neglected tropical diseases; diseases such as malaria, sleeping sickness, and blinding trachoma; partly since these conditions predominantly affect the poor and therefore attract little research and development (R&D) funding from current market mechanisms. Universities have an opportunity and a responsibility to take part in these solutions. Join this petition if you believe the University of Bristol should: (1) Make it a priority to ensure that the medicines it develops are available to the widest possible number of people, including those in developing countries; (2) Promote research into neglected diseases and seek partners, funding and innovative mechanisms to this effect; and (3) Measure the fruits of its research by their impact on human welfare (e.g. getting drugs to the right people, improving the livelihoods of poor communities) as opposed to merely measuring the financial return from research on medicines. Further information on this petition, a subsidiary of that of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines is available at http://www.essentialmedicine.org/add-your-voice/ We strongly encourage you to add your details to the above consensus statement. Thank you for considering our petition and for supporting efforts to bring medicines to those that need them most: the poor and marginalised in our world today.

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