    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2003, Book I)]
    [June 23, 2003]
    [Pages 673-676]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the Biotechnology Industry Organization Conference
    June 23, 2003

        Thanks a lot. Welcome to the Nation's Capital, and thanks for having
    me drop by.
        I knew Tommy was here when I saw his
    Harley Davidson parked out front. [Laughter] So I just put my Segway
    right next to it. [Laughter]
        It is a pleasure to be with so many leaders in such a vital
    industry. Each of you is carrying on the incredible work began some 50
    years ago by Doctors Watson and Crick. Since then, biotechnology is
    advancing knowledge and relieving suffering. In the years to come, the
    contributions of your industry will help us to win the war on terror,
    will help us fight hunger around the world, and will help us to save
    countless lives with new medicines.
        My administration is committed to working with your industry so that
    the great powers of biotechnology can serve the true interests of our
    Nation and mankind.
        Tommy Thompson is the Secretary of
    Health and Human Services. He is the point man for this administration
    on biotechnology and other matters of national health. And he is doing a
    fantastic job for America. Thank you, buddy.
        I want to thank Carl Feldbaum for inviting
    me and inviting you. I want to thank the--and welcome the Premiers and
    Ministers and Ambassadors and distinguished guests from around the world
    who are here today. I want to thank the Members of Congress who are
    here. Some of our Nation's Governors have joined us today.
        I understand the Mayor is here. I
    always like to see the Mayor and remind him that potholes in front of
    the White House need to be repaired on a regular basis. [Laughter]
        I appreciate my Commissioner, the man I named to head the Food and
    Drug Administration, Mark McClellan, for
    his service to the country.
        The biotechnology industry finds itself on the frontlines of some of
    the great challenges of our time. The first challenge is the need to
    fight terror. All of us know the great possibilities of modern science
    when it is guided by good and humane purposes. We understand as well the
    terrible harm that science can do in the hands of evil people.

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        On September the 11th, 2001, the world saw what terrorists could do
    with commercial airliners turned into weapons of mass murder. We know
    that our enemies have ambitions to acquire and use biological, chemical,
    and nuclear weapons. We will not sit idly by as these threats gather,
    and we will continue to act before dangers are upon us. The most direct
    way, the best way of removing threats to our country, is to eliminate
    them at their source. And that's what the United States of America has
    done and we will do by waging a focused, relentless effort to hunt down
    any terrorist that would harm the United States of America and our
    citizens.
        And we're making progress. We have captured or killed many key
    leaders of Al Qaida, and the other one knows we're hot on their trail.
    In Afghanistan and Iraq, we gave ultimatums to terror regimes. Those
    regimes chose defiance, and those regimes are no more.
        As we take the battle to the enemy, we must always remember where
    the battle began: here in our own country. So we've reorganized
    Government to defend the homeland, with greater security at our borders
    and ports, with more screeners at airports, and the Nation's first
    environmental sensors, a network of labs to quickly detect a biological
    attack.
        A key part of our all-out effort to prepare for the threat of
    bioterror is what this administration has called Project BioShield. I
    have proposed that our Government spend nearly $6 billion over the next
    10 years to speed the research, production, and availability of
    effective vaccines and treatments against smallpox and anthrax,
    botulinum toxin, Ebola, plague, and other possible agents of bioterror.
        Under Project BioShield, the Government will have the spending
    authority to ensure that the most advanced vaccines and treatments are
    available to our people. Project BioShield will give our scientific
    leaders greater authority and more flexibility in decisions that may
    affect our national security. Our labs will be able to hire the right
    experts, to buy the right equipment, and to speed the construction of
    the right facilities to accelerate urgently needed discoveries.
        Like other great scientific efforts, Project BioShield will have
    applications beyond its immediate goals. As scientists work to defeat
    the weapons of bioterror, I know they will gain new insights into the
    workings of other diseases. And this will also break new ground for the
    search for treatments and cures. And this, in turn, can provide great
    benefits for all humanity, especially in developing countries, where
    infectious diseases often go uncontrolled.
        Your industry must stay involved with this issue. If you're
    interested in seeing more flexibility and more research dollars for the
    sake of national security, I need your help in lobbying the Members of
    the United States Congress. And the message is clear: For the sake of
    our national security, the United States Congress must pass the
    BioShield legislation as soon as possible.
        Your industry is also helping this country and the world to meet a
    second great challenge, sparing millions of people from starvation.
    America and other wealthy nations have a special responsibility to
    combat hunger and disease in desperate lands. We meet that
    responsibility with emergency food in times of crisis. Next year, the
    United States will devote more than a billion dollars, providing food
    and aid to the hungry. But for the long term, we must help troubled
    nations to avert famine by sharing with them the most advanced methods
    of crop production.
        Through the work of scientists in your field, many farmers in
    developed nations are now able to grow crops with high resistance to
    drought and pests and disease--enable farmers to produce far greater
    yields per acre. In our own country, we see the benefits of biotech
    every day with food prices and good land conservation practices. Yet,
    the great advantages of biotechnology

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    have yet to reach developing nations in Africa and other lands where
    these innovations are now most needed.
        Acting on unfounded, unscientific fears, many European Governments
    have blocked the import of all new biotech crops. Because of these
    artificial obstacles, many African nations avoid investing in
    biotechnology, worried that their products will be shut out of important
    European markets. For the sake of a continent threatened by famine, I
    urge the European Governments to end their opposition to biotechnology.
    We should encourage the spread of safe, effective biotechnology to win
    the fight against global hunger.
        Finally, your industry is in the forefront of improving health care
    for all Americans, and we are grateful. Thanks to biotechnology, we may
    soon be able to grow life-saving therapies and useful chemicals in
    plants. Biotechnology might allow scientists to produce large amounts of
    monoclonal antibodies, which target specific, disease-causing molecules
    without attacking healthy cells. We're closing in on the ability to
    protect and fight against a range of illnesses, including cancer and HIV
    and heart disease.
        In coming years, we will see further innovations, like insulin that
    can be inhaled rather than administered by a needle. Men and women in
    your field are at work on synthetic blood that is free from infections
    and capable of being administered to all blood types. New therapies are
    nearing which will enable doctors to look at diseases for genetic
    markers and then give patients individualized treatments. The future of
    medicine in the United States of America is incredibly bright because of
    your work and your skill and your research. Our biotechnology industry
    is the strongest in the world, and we need to keep it that way.
        And now we have a challenge to make sure that many of the advances
    you have made in making sure our health care system can be world-class
    is extended to all Americans, especially our senior citizens. The
    Medicare system has served seniors well for nearly four decades. Yet,
    while medicine has dramatically advanced, Medicare hasn't. The program
    was designed at a time when hospital stays were common and drug
    therapies were rare. Thanks to your efforts, there are drugs and other
    treatments that can dramatically reduce hospital stays which, in turn,
    improves quality of care and quality of life. We have a responsibility
    to improve and strengthen Medicare by making modern medicine an integral
    part of the Medicare system, and that includes prescription drugs for
    all our seniors.
        This is a goal you have supported for several years. And if we
    finally put aside partisan politics and focus on what's right for
    American seniors, I believe we can achieve the goal this year. The
    debate is on in the United States Congress, and I've submitted a
    framework for reforms that insists that our seniors have choices under
    Medicare so that affordable health care plans compete for their business
    and give them the coverage they need, not the coverage that a Washington
    bureaucrat thinks they need.
        The principle of choice, of trusting people to make their own health
    care decisions, is behind the health plan enjoyed by every person on the
    Federal payroll, including the Members of the United States Congress.
    All Federal employees get to choose their health care plan. Health care
    plans compete for their business. Members of Congress have got excellent
    choices. If the choice idea is good enough for the lawmakers, it ought
    to be good enough for the seniors of the United States of America.
        Seniors who want to stay in the current Medicare system should have
    that option, plus a new prescription drug benefit. Seniors who want
    enhanced benefits, such as more coverage for their preventative care and
    other services, should have that choice as well. Seniors who like the
    affordability

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    of managed care plans should be able to enroll in them. And low-income
    seniors should receive extra help, so that all seniors will have the
    ability to choose a Medicare option that includes prescription drug
    benefits.
        As we pursue Medicare reform, we must make sure that whatever system
    evolves does not undermine America's biotechnology industry. We need to
    keep rewarding innovation and protecting competition without unnecessary
    intervention by the Government. When the Government determines which
    drugs are covered by health insurance and which illnesses are treated,
    patients face delays and inflexible limits on coverage. That is a fact.
    Medicine works best when doctors and their patients decide what
    treatments to pursue.
        We're making progress on this important issue. The House committee
    has marked up legislation. The Senate is now actively debating the issue
    on the floor. We have a chance to finally modernize Medicare, and I ask
    for your help. Please contact your Senators and Members of the United
    States House of Representatives. Ask them to take a tough vote, if need
    be, to modernize a system which needs to be saved.
        And as you make your voices heard on necessary reform for Medicare,
    make sure you make your voices heard on making sure that we have legal
    reform in America as well. We sue each other too much in the United
    States of America. We passed a medical liability reform bill and a class
    action reform bill out of the House of Representatives. These bills are
    stuck in the United States Senate. For the sake of a balanced legal
    system, we need tort reform in Washington, DC. And I call upon the
    United States Senate to act, to pass meaningful liability and class
    action suit reforms now.
        These are times of great challenge for this country. Our country
    must continue to meet the grave dangers of bioterrorism. We've got to
    continue to work to help relieve suffering around the world. And we've
    got to continue to seek cures to terrible diseases.
        In all of this, we're relying on the skill and conscience of
    scientists in the field of biotechnology. As men and women of science,
    you have accepted a moral calling to improve lives and to save lives.
    That calling also requires a deep respect for the value of every life
    because even the most noble ends do not justify any means. This Nation
    is counting on you to serve the true interests of all humanity. You face
    great challenges, yet you're an industry who welcomes challenge. Your
    hard work and inspiration have produced incredible successes. You have
    made us all proud. After all, millions of people are in your debt. The
    American people are grateful for your many achievements, and we look
    forward to the many achievements yet to come.
        May God bless your work, and may God continue to bless America.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:08 p.m. at the Washington Convention
    Center. In his remarks, he referred to Carl Feldbaum, president,
    Biotechnology Industry Organization; and Mayor Anthony A. Williams of
    Washington, DC.