Some of the country's top academic research centers are promising to leverage their considerable brainpower used in pursuit of new drugs to obtain an affordable price for their products by the time they reach the world's poorest countries. And their pronouncement is raising a red flag among biotech companies left wondering about its potential impact on new development programs.

Harvard, Yale, Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania, Oregon Health & Science University in Portland and Boston University have all pledged to negotiate on behalf of the poor when they execute new licensing deals with biopharma companies. They'll be particularly focused on drugs that are most needed by the poor to combat AIDS and other such diseases.

"We believe the principles and strategies enunciated in this document will further our shared goal of providing access to the benefits of our medical inventions for the most needy global citizens," said Yale President Richard Levin. But the position these academic researchers have taken isn't being universally applauded.

"I'm concerned about this type of action taking place unilaterally for a major source of inventions for the world," said John Maraganore, CEO of Alnylam, which has benefited from past scientific breakthroughs. "I think it's very important to have a dialogue to get this right."

- read the story from Bloomberg

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