Bush to Name Ex-Lilly CEO to
Run AIDS Fund

Randall Tobias

AMY GOLDSMITH & DAVID BROWN / Washington Post 2jul03

[NY Times article below]

Praise and Skepticism for Major GOP Donor

President Bush plans this morning to name Randall Tobias, a former pharmaceutical executive who is a Republican activist, to coordinate a $15 billion program to help prevent and treat AIDS in nations of Africa and the Caribbean that have been ravaged by the epidemic.

According to government and outside sources, the White House selected Tobias, who is in his early sixties and is a former chairman and chief executive officer of Eli Lilly & Co., to lead the initiative through a new office at the State Department. At least one source said that Joseph O'Neill, a physician who directs the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, would move to the new program, as well.

The appointment comes a month after Bush signed the AIDS initiative into law.

The initiative was a surprise proposal in the president's State of the Union address last winter and was adopted by Congress with uncommon speed for a major piece of public policy. It will essentially triple U.S. expenditures over the next decade to try to curb HIV internationally, and the White House has championed it as a humanitarian investment -- at a time when other aspects of the administration's foreign policy have antagonized some traditional allies.

The money will be directed primarily to 14 countries, most of them in Africa, and is intended to: expand efforts to curb the disease's spread; pay for medicine and training of health workers; build clinics; expand testing for HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS; and help orphans whose parents have died in the epidemic.

The expansion has delighted most AIDS activists, but some are wary about how the money will be spent -- and whether Congress will appropriate the amounts written into law. In particular, such activists and many Democrats have criticized a requirement in the law that one-third of the AIDS-prevention money be used to promote sexual abstinence outside marriage, a strategy that is popular among conservatives but is regarded as largely ineffective by many public health authorities.

Tobias's biography suggests little direct experience working on AIDS in developing nations but extensive experience with pharmaceuticals and corporations. He retired from Lilly in 1998 after six years at the drug manufacturer, one of the nation's largest, which is based in his native Indiana. Before that, he worked at AT&T, becoming, in 1981, the youngest senior executive in the company's history and, eventually, its vice chairman.

He and Lilly have been major donors to the Republican Party. He gave $4,000 to Bush from 1999 to 2001, and he and his wife donated a total of $37,000 to the GOP and its state elections committee during that period. Lilly, meanwhile, gave another $23,000 to Bush's campaign in 2000 and spent $234,000 on direct mail to its stockholders on Bush's behalf, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

More recently, he has endorsed another former senior Lilly executive, the White House's recently departed budget director, Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., for governor of Indiana, and is scheduled to host a $5,000-per-person dinner for him this month.

The first word of Tobias's appointment brought both praise and skepticism from organizations that are trying to bring better treatment to HIV-infected people in poor countries.

Sandra L. Thurman, who was director of the White House AIDS office in the Clinton administration and now is president of the International AIDS Trust, called Tobias's selection "good news." "This is clearly a person with tremendous stature and management acumen," Thurman said. She called O'Neill "one of the finest clinicians in HIV and AIDS," adding, "He has undoubtedly been one of the driving forces behind President Bush's $15 billion initiative and the administration's strong focus on care and treatment."

Others were less optimistic. "It seems to be a great day for American drug companies," said Denise Hughes, media director of Results, a Washington-based organization that advocates use of generic versions of antiretroviral drugs in poor countries because they are less expensive than brand-name medicines. "Let's hope that Mr. Tobias can deliver low-cost, generic drugs to those in need in places like Africa and Asia as the AIDS virus spreads out of control."

source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60413-2003Jul1.html 2jul03

Bush Names Coordinator for Global AIDS Policy 

KIRK SEMPLE / NY Times 2jul03

Five days before traveling to Africa, the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic, President Bush today named a former pharmaceutical company executive to coordinate the administration's global AIDS policy.

Randall Tobias, 61, who was chairman and chief executive officer of Eli Lilly & Company, will coordinate President Bush's $15 billion initiative to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean, two regions of the world that have been hardest hit by disease.

"Millions of lives depend on the success of this effort, and we are determined to succeed," Mr. Bush said during a White House ceremony announcing the appointment, which needs to be confirmed by the Senate.

The announcement came six weeks after Congress gave final approval to the president's AIDS initiative. The bill gives the federal government the authority to triple spending on the global AIDS fight during the next five years.

The program focuses on preventing and treating AIDS in 12 African nations and two Caribbean nations, and includes ambitious drug-delivery and medical-care networks stretching into the most remote regions of the those countries — "even by motorcycle or bicycle," the president said today.

According to the United Nations AIDS agency, 42 million people are infected with H.I.V. worldwide, 29.4 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa and 440,000 in the Caribbean.

"AIDS has already killed almost 20 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, where it is the No. 1 cause of death," Mr. Tobias said at the White House ceremony today. "And, without intervention, it will claim the lives of one quarter of the population in the next decade."

He added: "I look forward to listening to and learning from the leaders and the people of the nations who are most impacted by this extraordinary crisis, for, in the end, they are what this is all about."

Mr. Tobias retired in 1998 from Lilly, one of the nation's largest drug manufacturers. Before that he was vice chairman of AT&T. He has also been a significant contributor to the Republican Party.

Despite his nomination to such a high-profile post, Mr. Tobias remains something of a mystery among some international individuals and organizations promoting access to effective and affordable medicines to fight AIDS and other diseases in developing countries.

"We don't know much about Tobias, but we welcome the fact that we now have a person in charge of this initiative," said Jon Liden, spokesman for the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. "In the sense that he's a long-term manager and professional, it's very good news."

Mr. Bush has said Global Fund will be a primary recipient of money funneled through the White House global AIDS initiative.

James Love, director of the Consumer Project on Technology, an advocacy group in Washington, said Mr. Tobias's "test" would be how he handled the purchase of drugs. "We're concerned that the procurement of medicines will become a nontransparent, noncompetitive process," said Mr. Love, who has lobbied internationally for wider access to medicine.

In his comments today, Mr. Bush called Mr. Tobias "a superb leader who knows a great deal about life-saving medicines and who knows how to get results."

If confirmed, Mr. Tobias will report to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and will coordinate the administration's AIDS programs for all government departments and agencies, Mr. Bush said.

The president's global AIDS initiative concentrates in Africa on Botswana, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, and in the Caribbean on Guyana and Haiti.

Those 14 countries account for nearly 20 million H.I.V.-infected people, the White House said in a statement.