*EPF412 03/02/00
Transcript: Clinton Remarks at Vaccine Research Meeting March 2
(Announces new partnership to speed delivery of vaccines) (1230)
President Clinton March 2 joined leaders of industry, foundations, and international organizations to announce a new partnership to speed the development and delivery of effective vaccines for diseases -- including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.
In remarks at a vaccine research meeting at the White House, Clinton said the heart of the problem is the "lack of incentives for private industry to invest in new vaccines for people who simply can't afford to buy them."
Clinton said he has attempted to put a comprehensive package on the table so that the United States can do its part to change this, which includes:
-- a billion-dollar tax credit to speed the invention of vaccines;
-- a $50-million contribution to a global fund to purchase vaccines;
-- substantial increase in research at the National Institutes of Health.
Clinton said the private sector is also responding to this challenge. Their commitments include:
-- Merck is donating a million doses of Hepatitis B vaccine to those who need it most.
-- American Home Products will donate 10 million doses of a vaccine to -- strains of pneumonia and meningitis in children.
-- SmithKline-Beecham will expand its malaria vaccine program and begin new vaccine trials in Africa, and will donate drugs worth a billion dollars to eliminate elephantiasis, which is a painful and potentially very crippling and disfiguring tropical disease.
-- Aventis Pharma will donate 50 million doses of polio vaccine to five wartorn African nations.
Following is the White House transcript:
(begin transcript)
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
March 2, 2000
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT VACCINE RESEARCH MEETING
The Cabinet Room
12:55 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Ladies and gentlemen, as you can see, I have a very distinguished group of leaders here in the White House today, and I thank them all for coming -- leaders of the international organizations concerned with the health of people throughout the world; Minister of Health from Uganda; the leaders of the pharmaceutical industry and biotech industry and the foundation community in our country who are profoundly interested in joining forces to fight against diseases that kill both people and progress in the world's poorest countries. Diseases like AIDS, TB and malaria, each of which claim over a million lives a year, and others as well.
We agreed that the solution must include the development and the delivery of effective vaccines. That's how we got rid of small pox and come close to eliminating polio. So today we're beginning a partnership to eradicate the leading infectious killers of our time, speeding the delivery of existing vaccines and getting to the heart of the problem -- the lack of incentives for private industry to invest in new vaccines for people who simply can't afford to buy them.
I have attempted to put a comprehensive package on the table so that the United States can do its part to change this -- a billion-dollar tax credit to speed the invention of vaccines; a $50-million contribution to a global fund to purchase vaccines; substantial increase in research at the National Institutes of Health.
I've asked the World Bank to dedicate more lending to improve health, and Mr. Wolfensohn has been very forthcoming here today and I thank him for that. The private sector is also responding to this challenge, and I want to thank them and recognize the commitments that have been announced here today. Merck is committing to develop an AIDS vaccine not just for strains of the virus that affect wealthy nations, but for strains that ravage the poorest nations as well. This is profoundly important.
It's also donating a million doses of Hepatitis B vaccine to those who need it most. American Home Products will donate 10 million doses of a vaccine to -- strains of pneumonia and meningitis in children. SmithKline-Beecham will expand its malaria vaccine program and begin new vaccine trials in Africa, and will donate drugs worth a billion dollars to eliminate elephantiasis, which is a painful and potentially very crippling and disfiguring tropical disease. Aventis Pharma will donate 50 million doses of polio vaccine to five wartorn African nations.
This is a very important beginning. It will save lives and make it clear that we're serious. But all of us agree there is more to do. We have to first build on the bipartisan support that now exists in our Congress to enact the research and experimentation tax credit, and the tax credit that we proposed for this specific purpose, and to get the funding increases through. I will go to the G-8 meeting in Okinawa this summer to urge our partners to take similar steps.
And so let me say I am profoundly grateful. Now, because this is my first opportunity to be with you when you can say something back today, the press, I also want to just say a word about the terrible shooting yesterday, which followed the killing of the six-year-old child the day before in Michigan.
These two incidents were very troubling, and they have individual causes and explanations, and doubtless will require individual responses. But they do remind us that there is still too much danger in this country, and that for more than eight months now, Congress has been sitting on the common-sense gun safety legislation to require child safety locks, to close the gun show loophole, and the background law, and to ban the importation of large ammunition clips.
I have said before, I will say again today, I'm going to invite the leaders of this conference down to the White House to talk about what we can do to break the logjam. I also think we should go further. We ought to invest in smart gun technology. We talked about investing the vaccines; we're not too far from being able to develop technology which could change all the handguns so that they could only be fired by the adults who purchase them. And that would make a big difference.
Apparently, the child who was killed was killed by another child with a stolen gun. If we had child trigger locks on all the guns, it wouldn't have happened.
And finally, I think that it's long, long past time to license purchases of handguns in this country. Car owners are licensed; all drivers are licensed, whether they own a car or not. I think it's time to do that.
So I hope that we will see some action. But the most important thing now, thinking about this child, is if we had child trigger locks on all these guns, we could keep them alive. So I hope Congress will break the logjam. And I'm going to invite the conferees down here to do it.
Let me finally say, again, this is a truly astonishing turnout of people around this table, and together, if we work on it over the next few years, we can literally save the lives of millions of people. And it couldn't be done without the presence of all these people. And I'm very grateful to them. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: usinfo.state.gov)
NNNN