San Jose Mercury News, January 12, 2006
Duluth News-Tribune, January 12, 2006
Times Leader, January 18, 2006

The spread of bird flu to Turkey raises the specter of a frightening pandemic, which could eventually reach the United States (Page 8A, Jan. 10). Unfortunately, there's no vaccine available. Why? Because our government has crippled the country's once-thriving vaccine industry.

Litigation, regulation and price controls have strangled our ability to prevent deadly diseases, among them avian flu. Afraid of being sued and regulated to the point where they can't make a profit, U.S. drug companies, which dominate the global medicine market, have simply stopped making vaccines. Three dec ades ago, 10 U.S. firms manufactured flu vaccines. Now, only one does.

The White House recently announced that it will spend $7.1 billion, mostly on va cines, to fight avian flu. Ironically, it was too much government involvement that destroyed the vaccine industry in the first place. The real solution is to bring back a free market.

Sally Pipes
president/CEO
Pacific Research Institute San Francisco

Sally C. Pipes is president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute. She can be reached at spipes@pacificresearch.org.