AIDS Vaccine Panel Discussion [Minutes]

7-APR-97 PACHA AIDS VACCINE PANEL DISCUSSION - p. 38

the reality.
Number eight, large pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturers must increase
their investment in AIDS vaccine development. Let me just mention here how
minuscule, if you really look at it, the true private sector investment in AIDS vaccine
development is. And I don't say that as any criticism of the pharmaceutical and biotech
companies, but we really have to look at the reality. There are two companies that are
pursuing multiple approaches, Pasteur-Merieux and Chiron. Pasteur-Merieux's
program is mostly funded by the French Government, and Chiron has significantly
reduced their investment and their program at this time.
Now, in order to formulate policy and figure out how to proceed to encourage
investment, we have to look at and accept the reality of what's going on. In my work
as an activist and editing Treatment Issues at GMHC, I've worked with just about
every drug, pharmaceutical, and biotech company in AIDS drug development, and we
saw a pretty amazing process through the years. We saw the protease inhibitors go
through and other drugs that have failed. We saw that outside pressure and outside
support for private sector investment can do a great deal. Yet in the vaccine area, we
have seen almost none of this.
Last year, 15 years into the epidemic, was the first time any community activist
met with a vaccine manufacturer. It was actually a combined meeting between five
activists and Pasteur-Merieux and Chiron. It was the first time anyone sat down with
us, and said, "Please tell us what's going on. We'd like to support you. How can we
do this?"
I say this to the people here because there are a lot of community leaders on
this panel. We need the support of community-based organizations, and communitybased organizations need to invest in vaccine advocacy. We cannot just fund
prevention, care, and treatment if we want to end this epidemic. Each organization
must commit resources to monitoring governmental efforts, industry efforts. It is
critical. And international efforts.
That leaves, finally: community-based organizations must increase their support
for AIDS vaccine research. So, finally, I come here today as a representative of a
group which has started to look at this issue.
We urge the Council to carefully listen to what has been said today, to be bold
where it can, to not be afraid to ask of the President, of the Vice President, of our
scientific leadership, and of industry, because there's a role to be played for all those
organizations, and, finally, to ask community-based groups, which many of us are a
part of, to dramatically increase their commitment to developing a safe and effective
HIV vaccine.