Clinton spotlights TB, vaccine needs for poor
Clinton spotlights TB, vaccine needs for poor
Conference proposes new $1 billion tax credit
President Clinton has proposed a $1 billion tax credit that would equal the amount of a vaccine sale to an authorized purchaser, effectively doubling the purchasing power of organizations buying a new vaccine for TB, malaria, HIV and AIDS, or a handful of other qualifying infectious diseases.
Lack of incentives for private industry to invest in new vaccines for poor people who can’t afford to buy them is "the chief obstacle" to creating new vaccines and other treatments for TB, malaria, and AIDS, Clinton said.
Increase eyed for NIH budget
Clinton also is seeking a "substantial" increase in the budget for the National Institutes of Health, which coordinates research for new TB drugs and a new TB vaccine. In addition, he is calling for the World Bank to invest $900 million in improving public health in poor countries and says he will urge Congress to donate $50 million to a global vaccine purchase fund. The proposals were announced at a vaccine conference convened March 2 by Clinton at the White House.
The new tax credit proposal has been incorporated into the Vaccines for the Millennium Act, introduced March 1 by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA). The act includes proposals for making universal vaccination a major U.S. goal, contributing $50 million to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations, and creating a commission to oversee public and private vaccine partnerships.
Key players from international public health, the donor community, and pharmaceutical manufacturers showed up for Clinton’s vaccine conference. Among them were Gro Bruntland, head of the World Health Organization; Bill Gates Sr., administrator of the Gates philanthropy (which recently gave $750 million to the global vaccine purchasing fund); and CEOs from four vaccine manufacturers. At the conference, all four announced donations of existing vaccines to poor countries.
Clinton urged another guest — World Bank president James Wolfensohn — to invest $900 million annually to help build health care delivery systems in poor countries and help ensure distribution of existing vaccines.
Americans need to be aware of the importance of investing in public health in other parts of the world, Clinton said. "I know it’s difficult for Congress to come up with this money . . . but it’s good for Americans, as well as for people around the world," he added.
Although events in the news — chiefly, the shooting of a 6-year-old child by another child — sidetracked the chief executive from some of his prepared remarks on the subject of vaccines, observers say they came away impressed with the breadth of the cast of characters who turned out for the event.
"In some way, the planets are finally starting to align, and we’re seeing these unexpected new characters pop up in the story," says Jim Palmer, publicist for the Washington, DC-based Global Health Council.
"Suddenly, you’ve got Jim Wolfensohn; you’ve got Bill Gates; you’ve got the head of Nigeria hosting a conference on malaria; you’ve got [Vice President Al] Gore talking to the U.N. Security Council about AIDS. It’s not just a bunch of public health people gathered to talk about public health issues anymore," he says.
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