Minutes of Conference Call (Draft)

interests.

18. In contrast, agencies like Walter Reed (Army
Institute of Research of DoD] and CDC commonly support
overseas field research stations for decades, and thus
maintain long-term infrastructure and institutional
relationships with foreign collaborators. Individual
researchers in them may come and go, but the sites last
far longer than those dependent on the individual PIs
at U.S.-university-driven sites funded by NIH.
19. DoD and CDC have the international experience and
the epidemiologic and disease surveillance expertise
that is needed to run overseas medical research sites
designed to conduct vaccine field research past the
phase I stage. Phase II vaccine trials are really
pilot runs for moving into phase III field trials in
the population. In contrast, NIH has a "lack of
comfort" with that type of testing.
20. Dr. Heyward described how CDC conducts its
international research, which differs from the NIH
model which uses academic institutions in the U.S. with
sister academic institutions overseas, and in which
foreign governments are usually bypassed. CDC
generally works directly government-to-government,
usually collaborating with the ministries of health, to
establish long-term relationships. The sites do
research involving disease surveillance, laboratory
studies, and epidemiologic research. Having the
governmental relationship "up front and early on"
facilitates moving forward with more sensitive issues
such as vaccine trials.
21. Dr. Berkley emphasized the need to "capacitate"
developing country institutions and agencies involved
with research collaborations with U.S. institutions
into a sense of "ownership" of their research sites.
Such ownership is lessened when the "Northern"
[developed country] partners are in control and are
pressured by the academic drive to publish. Long-term
relationships based on equality between the partners
and "Southern" ownership are needed.
22. Bruce raised the question of whether the insight,