[Memo to PACHA Committee Members from Bruce Weniger]

Date: 6 September 1996

From: Bruce G. Weniger
To: Research Committee,
Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS (PACHA)
Subject: Briefings on AIDS Vaccine Research and Development
1. First Vaccine Conference Call Briefing
Our committee's telephone conference call "briefing" held on 4 April 1996, concerned
AIDS vaccine research and development. It was a very useful first step towards understanding
some of the key policy questions, debates, obstacles, and gaps in this field. Our informants
were the following experts in their fields:
o Dani Bolognesi (immunologist, Duke University)
o Mary-Lou Clements (vaccinologist, Johns Hopkins University)
o Jose Esparza (chief, Vaccine Development Unit, WHO/GPA/UNAIDS)
o Donald Francis (vaccinologist, Genentech)
o Maurice Hilleman (vaccinologist, Merck)
o Peggy Johnston (Scientific Director, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative)
o Jack Killen (Director, Division of AIDS, NIAID, NIH)
Our consensus was that this session was an informative and convenient method to
educate ourselves regarding the effort to develop an AIDS vaccine, so that on this subject we
could eventually fulfill our mandate from the President to provide him "advice and counsel on
what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong; what we should be doing and what we
shouldn't be doing; where our efforts are working and where they are not." The informants
were invited to provide us in advance with brief biographic data and written statements on the
issues. These were useful for understanding their perspective and documenting their points of
view.
2. Mechanics of Timing; Participation of Other PACHA Members
Afterwards, the Committee members agreed that 10 minutes per informant was not
sufficient to permit adequate discussion, and that in the future we should allocate a total of 15
minutes to each -- 10 for their presentation and 5 for questions and discussion. Word-ofmouth of the briefings reached other PACHA members, who requested that they be invited to
listen in to future briefings.
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