Diary Prequel Package — page 29

against my doing something for dying Africa babies? At the end of the day, I am not unhappy at the outcome since we need to get the ball rolling on the African AIDS issue and Tommy Thompson and J are leading the way. May 10, 2001 -- Met with Ambassador-Designate to the UN John Negroponte at the State Department. Also at the meeting was his aide Joe Marty. Secretary Thompson had suggested to him that I brief him on the international AIDS crises in preparation for his assuming the position as US Ambassador to the UN. It was a good meeting and John recalled with pleasure that I had briefed him on AIDS in 1985 (more than 15 years ago). I mentioned to him that the situation in Africa is much more of a health care infrastructure/nation building problem than it is a scientific problem. We renewed friendship and promised to work closely together. May 11, 2001 -- HVIN in Crystal city in the AM of Friday 5/11/01; but then went to Atlanta on Sunday to deliver Commencement Address at Emory Medical School. I know.... I am nuts! May 18, 2001 -- Had important meeting with Adel Mahmoud in my Conference room regarding future collaborations with Merck on an HIV Vaccine. Present -- Jack Killen, John La Montagne, Peggy Johnston, Gary Nabel. Meeting triggered by my concern that Merck was leading Gary Nabel on regarding collaborations with NIH (in the form of Emilio Emini), but really did not want to collaborate for obvious and understandable reasons. Ed Scolnick and I spoke by phone and decided that we needed to get Adel M. involved. My feeling is that although the parties are friends (me, Adel Mahmoud, Ed Scolnick), Merck does not feel that it is in their best interest to get seriously involved in a collaboration with the US government (i.e. NIH) for the obvious reason that they want control given they have invested so much and are aimed directly at approval of product. I believe that they are acting like they want to collaborate for public relations purposes. I actually do not blame them since I would probably do the same thing if I were in private industry. May 21, 2001 -- Had dinner at home of William Haseltine (CEO of Human Genome Sciences). Bill is an old and good friend who frequently includes me in social events. The event was the meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Brookings Institution. Bill is a Board member. It was a politically star-studded gust list including most of the Trustees. Present were James Johnson (Chair), Larry Summers (former Secr. of Treasury and recently appointed President of Harvard), Dennis Ross (Middle East peace negotiator who gave a great after dinner talk on Middle East conflict), Joan Spero (DDCF), Donna Shalala, Leonard Shaeffer. Michael Armacost (President of The Brookings), Lee Hamilton (former Congressman and President of the Woodrow Wilson Institute), Zoe Baird, etc. etc. Excellent conversation at dinner regarding a wide range of world and. domestic topics.