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PRESS RELEASE
For more information, please contact: Gwen Osborne, director of public affairs, (312) 906-5251
Chicago-Kent receives funding for diabetes research
and legal advocacy for diabeticsLaw school shares IIT cy pres award from class action settlement
CHICAGO–August 29, 2007–Chicago-Kent College of Law has received significant funding for diabetes research and legal advocacy through a $5 million award deriving from the 2007 settlement of a consumer class action lawsuit challenging the effectiveness of the diabetes drug Rezulin.
Invoking the legal doctrine of cy pres, the court directed that a portion of the funds remaining after all the claimants had been compensated be awarded to Illinois Institute of Technology to further its diabetes research.
The law school will share the funding with the university’s department of biomedical engineering, which, together with the law school, runs the Center for Diabetes Research and Policy.
On the legal front, a portion of the award will be used to provide pro bono legal representation to individuals or groups of individuals who are denied access to medical treatment for diabetes and diabetes-related illnesses. Such cases, based on a broad variety of fact patterns, most frequently arise against insurance companies, the Social Security Administration, schools, employers, detention centers and prisons where discrimination or lack of access to care or accommodations is alleged.
Funding will also be used to develop and support a Web-based advice center that provides diabetics and their families with information and resources, and guides them through the various application processes required for the acquisition of benefits and treatment.
Funding will also be used to develop overall policy recommendations on facilitating access to treatment, insurance coverage and related government benefits, and to examine the conflicts that arise among the competing interests of diabetes researchers, research institutions, patients, pharmaceutical companies, and the public health community.
Ethical issues arising under the latter category include patient privacy, the funding and recruitment of subjects for research, informed consent regarding tissue donation and storage of genetic information, intellectual property rights of diabetic patients, and the significance of diabetes in the stem cell debate.
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