Institutional Response to the HIV Blood Test Patent Dispute and Related Matters

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INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSE TO THE HIV
BLOOD TEST PATENT DISPUTE AND
RELATED MATTERS
Staff Report
of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
Committee on Energy and Commerce 5571095.0488005
United States House of Representatives
V. COMPARING THE VIRUSES
A. The HHS Press Conference
On April 23, 1984, HHS held a press conference for the international media. The press
conference was scheduled on short notice, when news of the LTCB "discoveries" began to leak to
the public. During the press conference, HHS Secretary Margaret Heckler announced that:
"... the probable cause of AIDS has been found -- a variant of a known human
cancer virus, called HTLV-III... a new process has been developed to mass produce
this virus... we now have a blood test for AIDS which we hope can be widely
available within about six months. We have applied for the patent on this process
today" (emphasis added; press conference transcript, p. 4)
Secretary Heckler, in her written text, spoke of the IP scientists' work, particularly
their prior discovery of "a virus which they have linked to AIDS patients." Secretary
Heckler said,
"... within the next few weeks we will know with certainty whether that virus is the
same one identified through the NCI's work. We believe it will prove to be the same"
(Heckler prepared remarks, p. 3).
These remarks and others acknowledging the IP contributions -- remarks added at the
insistence of the scientists at CDC -- were selectively deleted from Secretary Heckler's spoken
remarks.
For his part, Dr. Gallo made the aforementioned unsupportable claims that he and his
colleagues,
"now have produced more than 50 isolates... in mass production, and in detailed
characterization" (op cit., p. 9) and "... we've been mass-producing it for six months"
(op cit., p. 31).

(Note: Dr. Gallo later would tell OSI that by "mass-producing," he meant "continuously

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