I 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1391 
To accelerate efforts to develop vaccines for diseases primarily affecting 
developing countries, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 7, 2007 
Mr. VISCLOSKY (for himself, Mr. RANGEL, Mr. KING of New York, Mr. 
MCGOVERN, Ms. CARSON, and Mr. MCNULTY) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and 
in addition to the Committees on Foreign Affairs and Financial Services, 
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case 
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the 
committee concerned 
A BILL 
To accelerate efforts to develop vaccines for diseases pri-
marily affecting developing countries, and for other pur-
poses. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Vaccines for the Fu-
ture Act of 2007’’. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
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(1) AIDS.—The term ‘‘AIDS’’ has the meaning 
given the term in section 104A(g) of the Foreign As-
sistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151b–2). 
(2) APPROPRIATE
CONGRESSIONAL
COMMIT-
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-
mittees’’ means the Committee on Appropriations 
and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Sen-
ate and the Committee on Appropriations and the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Rep-
resentatives. 
(3) DEVELOPING COUNTRY.—The term ‘‘devel-
oping country’’ means a country that the World 
Bank determines to be a country with a lower mid-
dle income or less. 
(4) HIV/AIDS.—The term ‘‘HIV/AIDS’’ has 
the meaning given the term in section 104A(g) of 
the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 
2151b–2). 
(5) GAVI ALLIANCE.—The term ‘‘GAVI Alli-
ance’’ means the public-private partnership launched 
in 2000 for the purpose of saving the lives of chil-
dren and protecting the health of all people through 
the widespread use of vaccines. 
(6) NEGLECTED
DISEASE.—The term ‘‘ne-
glected disease’’ means— 
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(A) HIV/AIDS; 
(B) malaria; 
(C) tuberculosis; or 
(D) any infectious disease that, according 
to the World Health Organization, afflicts over 
1,000,000 people and causes more than 
250,000 deaths each year in developing coun-
tries. 
(7) WORLD BANK.—The term ‘‘World Bank’’ 
means the International Bank for Reconstruction 
and Development. 
SEC. 3. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) Immunization is an inexpensive and effec-
tive public health intervention that has had a pro-
found life-saving impact around the world. 
(2) During the 20th century, global immuniza-
tion efforts have successfully led to the eradication 
of smallpox and the elimination of polio from the 
Western Hemisphere, Europe, and most of Asia. 
Vaccines for diseases such as measles and tetanus 
have dramatically reduced childhood mortality world-
wide, and vaccines for diseases such as influenza, 
pneumonia, and hepatitis help prevent sickness and 
death of adults as well as children. 
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(3) According to the World Health Organiza-
tion, combined, AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria kill 
more than 5,000,000 people a year, most of whom 
are in the developing world, yet there are no vac-
cines for these diseases. 
(4) Other, less well-known neglected diseases, 
such as pneumococcal disease, lymphatic filariasis, 
leptospirosis, leprosy, and onchocerciasis, result in 
severe health consequences for individuals afflicted 
with them, such as anemia, blindness, malnutrition 
and impaired childhood growth and development. In 
addition, these diseases result in lost productivity in 
developing countries costing in the billions of dollars. 
(5) Infants, children, and adolescents are 
among the populations hardest hit by AIDS, ma-
laria, and many other neglected diseases. Nearly 
11,000,000 children under age 5 die each year due 
to these diseases, primarily in developing countries. 
Existing and future vaccines that target children 
could prevent more than 2,500,000 of these illnesses 
and deaths. 
(6) The devastating impact of neglected dis-
eases in developing countries threatens the political 
and economic stability of these countries and con-
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stitutes a threat to United States economic and se-
curity interests. 
(7) Of more than $100,000,000,000 spent on 
health research and development across the world, 
only $6,000,000,000 is spent each year on diseases 
that are specific to developing countries, most of 
which is from public and philanthropic sources. 
(8) Despite the devastating impact these and 
other diseases have on developing countries, it is es-
timated that only 10 percent of the world’s research 
and development on health is targeted on diseases 
affecting 90 percent of the world’s population. 
(9) Because the developing country market is 
small and unpredictable, there is an insufficient pri-
vate sector investment in research for vaccines for 
neglected diseases that disproportionately affect pop-
ulations in developing countries. 
(10) Creating a broad range of economic incen-
tives to increase private sector research on neglected 
diseases is critical to the development of vaccines for 
neglected diseases. 
(11) In recognition of the need for more eco-
nomic incentives to encourage private sector invest-
ment in vaccines for neglected diseases, an inter-
national group of health, technical, and economic ex-
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perts has developed a framework for an advance 
market commitment pilot program for pneumococcal 
vaccines. Pneumococcal disease, a cause of pneu-
monia and meningitis, kills 1,600,000 people every 
year, an estimated 1,000,000 of whom are children 
under age 5. This pilot program will seek to stimu-
late investments to develop and produce pneumo-
coccal vaccines that could prevent between 500,000 
and 700,000 deaths by the year 2020. 
(12) On February 9, 2007, 5 countries, Britain, 
Canada, Italy, Norway, and Russia, together with 
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, pledged, 
under a plan called an Advance Market Commit-
ment, to purchase pneumococcal vaccines now under 
development. Together, these countries and the Bill 
and Melinda Gates Foundation have committed 
$1,500,000,000 for this program. Experts believe 
that this initiative could accelerate by a decade the 
widespread use of such a vaccine in the developing 
world and could prevent the deaths of an estimated 
5,400,000 children by 2030. 
SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON SUPPORT FOR NE-
GLECTED DISEASES. 
It is the sense of Congress that— 
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(1) the President should continue to encourage 
efforts to support the Global HIV Vaccine Enter-
prise, a virtual consortium of scientists and organi-
zations committed to accelerating the development of 
an effective HIV vaccine; 
(2) the United States should work with the 
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Ma-
laria, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/ 
AIDS (‘‘UNAIDS’’), the World Health Organiza-
tion, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, the 
GAVI Alliance, and the World Bank to ensure that 
all countries heavily affected by the HIV/AIDS pan-
demic have national AIDS vaccine plans; 
(3) the United States should support and en-
courage the carrying out of the agreements of the 
Group of 8 made at the 2005 Summit at Gleneagles, 
Scotland, to increase direct investment and create 
market incentives, including through public-private 
partnerships and advance market commitments, to 
complement public research in the development of 
vaccines, microbicides, and drugs for HIV/AIDS, 
malaria, tuberculosis, and other neglected diseases; 
(4) the United States should support the devel-
opment of effective vaccines for infants, children, 
and adolescents as early as is medically and ethically 
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appropriate, in order to avoid significant delays in 
the availability of pediatric vaccines at the cost of 
thousands of lives; 
(5) the United States should continue sup-
porting the work of the GAVI Alliance and the Glob-
al Fund for Children’s Vaccines as appropriate and 
effective vehicles to purchase and distribute vaccines 
for neglected diseases at an affordable price once 
such vaccines are discovered in order to distribute 
them to the developing world; 
(6) the United States should work with others 
in the international community to address the mul-
tiple obstacles to the development of vaccines for ne-
glected diseases including scientific barriers, insuffi-
cient economic incentives, protracted regulatory pro-
cedures, lack of delivery systems for products once 
developed, liability risks, and intellectual property 
rights; and 
(7) the United States should contribute to the 
pilot Advance Market Commitment for pneumococcal 
vaccines launched in Rome on February 9, 2007, 
which could prevent some 500,000 to 700,000 child 
deaths by the year 2020 and an estimated 5,400,000 
child deaths by 2030. 
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