Senate Bills - 109th Congress

S. 1698—The Vaccines for the New Millennium Act of 2005

On September 14, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) introduced S. 1698, the Vaccines for the New Millennium Act of 2005. Provisions would require the President to establish a comprehensive strategy to accelerate development of vaccines and microbicides for neglected diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, primarily in developing countries. These efforts would be designed to expand public-private partnerships and leveraging of resources from other countries and the private sector, maximize U.S. capabilities to support clinical trials of vaccines and microbicides in developing countries, address intellectual property issues, and develop initiatives to create economic incentives for research, development, and manufacturing of vaccines for the above and other neglected diseases. NIH would be required to conduct a study of the extent to which a tax credit for medical research related to developing vaccines for neglected diseases (a new provision in the bill) has stimulated vaccine research. The agency would also be required to provide a report to Congress on the results of the study, and with recommendations to improve such a tax credit, if needed. S. 1698, which was cosponsored by Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), was referred to the Senate Committee on Finance.