Diary Prequel Package — page 110

'Investigations. Nov. 18, 2004 - Hearing today before House Commerce and Energy Investigations. Together with Julie and Les Crawford. Nov. 19, 2004 - I arranged a meeting among Medimmune (Flumist), the FDA, and Stewart Simonson to try to pursue ways to get broader approval and utilization of Flumist for next year to make up for the anticipated shortages since Chiron will almost certainly not be able to re-fill the gap by next year. Present at the meeting were Medimmune CEO David Mott, President Jim Young, VP of Reg Affairs Peter Patriarca, CMO Edward Connor, Sr. Director Scientific Affairs Kathleen Coelingh. From FDA were Les Crawford (Acting Comm) and Jesse Goodman (head of CBER). Also, Stewart Simonson, Bruce Gellin, Pamela McInnes, Ralph Tate. I am trying to be the facilitator to have FDA look at Medimmune data on 50 to 64 year old people sooner rather than later so that Medimmune can produce an extra 10 million doses for next year. They need approval for this age group or else then cannot take the risk of making 10 million more doses and not be able to sell them. Nov. 30, 2004 - Memorial service hosted by me at Natcher Building at NIH for John La Montagne. I delivered Eulogy (see speeches file). I am only starting to come to grips with the intense feeling of grief and sorrow at having lost John. I really liked him very much. He was such a fine human being. Present at the Memorial Service were Secretary Thompson, Margaret Spellings, Carol Kuntz, Stewart Simonson, Julie Gerberding, D.A. Henderson and hundreds of other friends of John. I have appointed Cliff Lane as the Acting Deputy Director of NIAID. Dec. 3, 2004 - Secretary Thompson resigns and asks me to come down to the Department as he makes his announcement. He brought me into his office alone and with both of us in tears he expressed his gratitude and admiration for my service to him, the DHHS and the country. I expressed my mutual feelings for him. Below is his resignation statement: Dear Friends, This morning, I submitted to President Bush my resignation as Secretary of Health and Human Services. It was a difficult decision and one I did not make easily. But after nearly 40 years of public service, it is time for me and my family to move onto the next chapter in our life. It has been my honor and privilege to serve President Bush and the nation with each of you in this dynamic Department. As I have often said, our 67,000-member family is home to the finest employees in the federal government. When you work at HHS, the greatest doctors, scientists and public servants in the world are your coworkers. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to work with all of you in this noble calling.