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Pharmaceuticals
Pandemic Flu Plans Unveiled
President Bush announces $7.1 billion strategy to develop vaccines, improve preparedness
by Bette Hileman
November 7, 2005
| A version of this story appeared in
Volume 83, Issue 45
PUBLIC HEALTH
President George W. Bush has announced an ambitious $7.1 billion plan to prepare the U.S. for a possible influenza pandemic. The strategy he outlined on Nov. 1 at NIH in Bethesda, Md., includes $1 billion to stockpile antiviral drugs and more than $1 billion for vaccine development.
The cornerstone of the Bush strategy is $2.8 billion for accelerating the development of cell-culture technology for vaccine production. Current techniques using eggs involve a six- to eight-month process before a vaccine is available. Bush is also asking Congress to strengthen liability protections for vaccine makers.
The pharmaceutical industry appears to be pleased with Bushs plan, but some public health groups complain that it lacks key elements.
Todays efforts are an excellent and comprehensive first step to prepare for a flu pandemic, says Billy Tauzin, president of the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America.
A spokesperson for the advocacy group Trust for Americas Health, however, says that the budget request does not adequately fund support for state and local health departments.
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No cases of bird flu, caused by the H5N1 virus, have appeared in the U.S., Bush said at the meeting of scientists and public health officials. But H5N1, which has killed about 60 of the 122 people infected in Asia, is responsible for about 140 million bird deaths since 2003. Today, there is no pandemic influenza anywhere, Bush noted, but in the past century, the world was hit by three pandemics, including the 1918 flu episode, which killed over half a million Americans.
Although the H5N1 virus has not yet acquired the ability to spread easily from human to human, Bush said, it has developed some characteristics needed to cause a pandemic. No nation can afford to ignore this threat, and every nation has a responsibility to detect and stop its spread.
Bush laid out a three-pronged strategy to avoid a flu pandemic: improve the ability to detect outbreaks anywhere in the world; improve the capacity to produce new vaccines against a pandemic strain and stockpile vaccines and antiviral drugs; and improve response capacities at the federal, state, and local levels.
To meet these goals, Bush is requesting $251 million to help foreign countries expand their surveillance capacity. He is requesting $1.2 billion to purchase enough doses of an experimental vaccine against H5N1 to treat 20 million people. In addition, he is asking Congress for $1 billion to build government stockpiles of the antiviral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza. To help states develop flu preparedness plans, Bush is requesting $100 million.
Congress has intense interest in fighting a potential flu pandemic. On Nov. 2, subcommittees of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees held hearings on the issue, and the Senate passed an amendment to the Heath & Human Services spending bill that would provide $8 billion to battle bird flu. That measure will die, however, unless House negotiators approve it in conference. As a result of this subcommittee activity, at least some of the funds Bush is requesting appear likely to be appropriated.
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