Diary Prequel Package — page 95

and plans. Today we brought it to the PCC + deputies (Claude Allen of DHHS). Meeting was chaired by Richard Falkenrath. Present were several WH and departmental people including Kristen Silverberg, Ken Bernard, Carol Kuntz, Bill Winkenwerder, Stewart Simonson, Allen Gilbert. We came to a good understanding of what we are ultimately going to put before the full deputies and ultimately the Principals. April 5, 2004 - White House (West Wing) - Met with Gary Edson. Attending were Carol Thompson, David Nelson and Gary's assistant Martina Strong. Discussed the G-8 issue regarding Gary's concern that the other countries will bring up the issue of generics and PEPFAR, i.e. the false impression that we (USG) are against generics , particularly the generic fixed dose combination of D4T, 3TC and nevirapine. Gary does not want the POTUS to be embarrassed if others blind side him with this. The PEPFAR people (Tobias et al) should have straightened this out at a recent (March 29-30) meeting in Botswana. There was a debate about WHO "pre-qualification" of these drugs and our concern about the criteria and data upon which these drugs were pre-qualified. Also, we discussed the issue of the POTUS proposing an endorsement of the HIV Vaccine Enterprise as our AIDS proposal for the G-8 meeting in June at Sea Island, GA. We will work with Gates (Patty Stonesifer) to endorse this, but the Gates Foundation is going to want us to promise even more money for an AIDS vaccine. Note that we are already spending>$500 million, vastly more than all other groups put together. Gary will rewrite the POTUS's G-8 proposal regarding the Enterprise and run it by me, Kristen Silverberg, Secretary Thompson, Amb. Tobias before we launch it to the G-8. April 6, 2004 - White House (EEOB) - Met with Kristen Silverberg, Robin Cleveland, Randy Tobias, Mark Dybul, Alan Gilbert, Press person from WH (?name, a woman), Joe O'Neill, and others to discuss issue of the bad press we are getting regarding the misperception that the USG and PEPFAR will not buy generics, particularly the fixed dose combination (FDC) of D4T, 3TC and nevirapine that CIPLA and Ranbaxy are selling. Decision was made to have Randy Tobias write and Op-Ed for The NY Times or the Washington Post (I will review it for him) and then have me and Randy as necessary do the TV circuit to get the truth out , i.e. that we will buy any drugs , even generics, so long as they are of high quality (safe and effective) and the lowest possible price. April 6-12, 2004 - Not much opportunity to implement issue above on April 6 because the entire Press is consumed with the deteriorating conditions in Iraq. Major insurgencies by both Sunnis (Fallujah) and Shiites (Baghdad) against American troops. Several US troops are getting killed each day and insurgents have resorted to kidnapping civilians from other countries who are working in Iraq, i.e. Japanese, Australians, UK, Chinese, etc. Bad situation that is getting worse. April 13, 2004 - White House (West Wing) - 2 meetings. First regarding the issue of the HIV Vaccine Enterprise and whether we should make this an initiative for the POTUS to present at the upcoming G-8 Summit in Sea Island, GA. Present was Kristen Silverberg, Martina Strong (Gary Edson's assistant), Joe O'Neill, Carol Thompson. I presented the idea to Kristen and explained what Gary and I had been working on for the past several weeks. I explained how we wanted the POTUS to challenge the G-8 to