HHS Deputy Secretary Attends Meetings on Innovation in Research and Health Care Services in Vienna, Austria

September 12, 2006 The Honorable Alex M. Azar, II, Deputy Secretary of Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), traveled to Vienna , to attend The Forum for European Union (EU)-United States Legal-Economic Affairs, from September 13-16, 2006 . Deputy Secretary Azar met also with Austrian Government and Parliamentary Officials for discussion of promoting innovation in health-care and the availability of new drugs.

On September 13, 2006 , Deputy Secretary Azar met with the members of the Forum of the Innovative Pharmaceutical Industry (FOPI), an Austrian association of research-oriented international pharmaceutical enterprises. Innovation and drug development were also key topics when Deputy Secretary met with the Honorable Joseph Mayer, the Austrian Assistant Secretary for European Integration and Foreign Trade.

On September 14, 2006 , The Honorable Hubert Gorbach, AustrianVice-Chancellor and Federal Minister of Transport, Innovation, and Technology, received Deputy Secretary Azar to discuss the intersection of many technologies and commercial sectors on innovations in health care.

On that same day, Deputy Secretary Azar delivered a speech titled "Recent Breakthroughs in Health Protection and Advanced Medical Care Fostered by the U. S. National Institutes of Health, the U. S. Food and Drug Administration and the Private Sector" at the Forum for EU-U.S. Legal-Economic Affairs. The Deputy Secretary's theme was that government actions affect prices, prices affect investment, investment affects innovation, and innovation affects health. "The more free competition there is in the health-insurance, health-care, pharmaceutical, and medical-device markets and the more barriers to innovation Governments remove, the more innovation and health the world will enjoy," said Deputy Secretary Azar. The Honorable Karl Korinek, President of the Constitutional Court of Austria opened the Forum, which includes leading international officials, experts in law and justice, and private-sector representatives.

On Friday 15, 2006, Deputy Secretary Azar toured a vaccine-manufacturing plant operated by Baxter Pharmaceuticals, an American company with a global presence that is developing human vaccines against both seasonal influenza and the H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza, as well as using a high-output cell-based vaccine technology.

Also on the occasion of this visit to Austria , Deputy Secretary Azar met with the Honorable David Waller, the Deputy Director-General and Head of the Department of Management of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to discuss collaborations on the Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT) program. In June 2004, IAEA established PACT with the National Cancer Institute of the HHS National Institutes of Health as a partner. The goal of PACT is to forge a coalition of interested parties to address the increasing challenge of cancer in developing countries.

Last revised: December 04, 2007