THE EXPERT ADVISORY GROUP FOR MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS IN ASIA

ON THE SUBJECTS OF EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASES, CHRONIC INFECTIOUS DISEASES, AND OTHER MAJOR HEALTH PROBLEMS IN ASIA

EXPERT ADVISORY GROUP FOR MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS IN ASIA is an organization whose primary goal is to facilitate cultural and scientific exchange programs. As part of this exchange, the Group arranges for highly experienced Western medical and scientific experts to visit with and advise medical institutions (primarily in the People’s Republic of China) on the subjects of infectious diseases (emerging as well as chronic), wound care (acute and chronic), cancer management, and other major health problems in Asia. As another part of the Group’s exchange activities, it arranges for physicians and scientists from the People’s Republic of China to spend periods of time in the U.S. getting advanced training in their respective fields.

A. Concept & Goals
The SARS outbreak was a wake-up call to the entire world about the danger of “emerging diseases”, which can encircle the globe within a few days. The Pacific Rim was of course among the regions of the world that were hardest hit, and most rudely awakened to the new reality.

During the SARS crisis, Professor John Tse kindly arranged for certain U.S. physicians with expertise in infectious diseases to have the honor of a full-agenda meeting at the U.S. Consulate General with then-Ambassador Zhang Hongxi of The People’s Republic of China, as well as with Counselor Dong JinSheng, Science & Technology Counsel.

Ambassador Zhang said that SARS is “a great human tragedy”, and that it “endangers the entire world”. We wholeheartedly agree, and, as a panel of physicians and scientists highly specialized in the areas of infectious disease and wound management, we would like to offer whatever assistance we can.

The consultants on the panel are advisers to many of the world’s leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and have conducted many clinical trials that were funded by those companies.

Some of the panel members are Heads of an entire hospital system, while some others are Chairmen of major departments. All of them are pioneers and innovators in their fields, which is the major reason they were asked to join the panel:

• Some of the panel members tested drugs that they themselves had invented. They shared their creative ideas for new classes of drugs with one or another pharmaceutical company, and these drugs proved to be successful in controlling infectious diseases (e.g. HIV/AIDS).
• Others on the panel have made great breakthroughs in the treatment of multidrug-resistant infections.
• One of the panel members is a pioneer in developing new devices that speed the healing of wounds (burns, pressure sores, diabetic ulcers, etc.) and that also improve the control of infections which otherwise commonly develop in such wounds.
• One member of the panel has directed the research and development of vaccines against agents of biological warfare, and he now meets regularly with White House staffers as well as with Directors of several governmental agencies in the U.S., to advise on the subject of emergency preparedness.

Goals:

• To help medical institutions to explore new options for treating, and new methods of preparedness for, emerging diseases (such as SARS) as well as established diseases (such as hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, burn infections, pressure sores, diabetic leg ulcers, etc.).
• To bring breakthrough drugs to the attention of the medical institutions, so that such drugs can – if deemed appropriate – be used to control the various diseases of interest.
• To facilitate and arrange cultural and scientific exchange programs between the United States and Asian countries (primarily the Peoples Republic of China).

B. Personnel for the Advisory Group: Executive Committee, and Consultants

1. Executive Committee
Professor John Tse, Chairman
Professor Tse is a seasoned international business consultant with a record of achievement in bringing people, companies and governments together to promote business enterprises in China and the Asian Pacific Rim. Professor Tse is also the Chief Advisor for The State of North Carolina Council on China Relations. He is the Chairman and CEO of J & P International Enterprise Inc., and also of Global Strategies Asia Group, Inc., two New York/New Jersey based economic and political consulting firms. Professor Tse will apply his skills and experience to assure that China’s health leaders get the maximum possible benefit from their interactions with the U.S. experts, and also to assure that the U.S. experts facilitate the availability, to China, of cutting-edge medications that could make a significant impact on reducing human suffering as well as on the economic costs of disease.

Richard M. Carlton, M.D., Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Carlton is the Chief Executive Officer of Exponential Biotherapies, Inc., a biotechnology company developing novel drugs against infectious diseases as well as against severe inflammatory disorders (such as septic shock). He has been the principal investigator on a number of investigational new drugs. Dr. Carlton, along with Dr. Prior (see below), will handle most of the logistics for the Advisory Group, including teleconferences as well as in-person visits with the esteemed colleagues in China with whom they will be interacting.

Stephen D. Prior, Ph.D., Global Coordinator
Dr. Prior advises the White House and several other major institutions in the U.S. on preparedness for natural and man-made biological emergencies.

• Dr. Prior works closely with Dr. Carlton and Professor Tse to coordinate all the activities of the Advisory Group.
• He is the Advisory Group’s key person for negotiating business matters with the pharmaceutical companies that the Advisory Panel members bring to the table.
• Dr. Prior brings his many high-level government contacts in the U.S. and the United Kingdom to bear to facilitate the activities and the full scope of the Advisory Group.

2. Consultants
Robert Moellering, Jr., M.D.

• Herrman L. Blumgart Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
• Physician-in-Chief, Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center

Karen Lindsay, M.D.
Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine
Hepatitis Research and Treatment Center
Keck School of Medicine
University of Southern California

Harold Kessler, M.D.
Professor of Medicine and Immunology/Microbiology
Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois

Jeffrey Galpin, M.D.

• Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California;
• Bristol Myers-Squibb Distinguished Investigator of the Year, 1999

Stan Deresinski, M.D.

• Clinical Professor of Medicine, Stanford University, California
• Associate Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, San Jose, California
• Pospital Epidemiologist, Sequoia Hospital, Redwood City, California
• Editor, Infectious Disease Alert

These various experts are key consultants to the world’s major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Taking the group as a whole, the list of companies consulted to includes Abbott Laboratories, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Aventis, Burroughs-Wellcome, Bristol Meyer-Squibb (BMS), Ciba-Geigy, Eli Lilly, G.D. Searle, Genentech, Glaxo, Hoechst Marion Roussel, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, Schering-Plough, and SmithKline, to name just a few.

Starting on the next page, several examples will be given of the high-level contacts that the Advisory Panel members have with the pharmaceutical industry and with governmental institutions.


Dr. Robert Moellering, Jr. is one of the best known and most respected physicians in the United States. As mentioned, he is Physician-in-Chief of Harvard’s main teaching hospital, Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center. Some of the highlights that will be seen in C.V. include the fact that:

• Dr. Moellering has been either a consultant to or on the Scientific Advisory Board of sixty-four (64) pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies
• In 1977 there was a feature article about him in The Lancet
• He has been listed in The International Who’s Who in Medicine
• He was on the Advisory Panel on Antimicrobial Resistance of the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), U.S. Congress
• He was on the American Society of Microbiology Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance
• He was Chairman of the HIV Therapeutics Trials Data and Safety Monitoring Board of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, National Institutes of Health
• He has been Editor or Editor-in-Chief of a number of prestigious journals, such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Antimicrobial Agents & Chemotherapy, and Annals of Internal Medicine (to name a few).

Dr. Moellering’s principal research interests are:

• Mechanisms of Antimicrobial Interactions
• Mechanisms of Resistance to Antimicrobial Agents
• Mechanisms of Action of Antimicrobial Agents
• Pharmacokinetics of Antimicrobial Agents
• In Vitro Evaluation of New Antimicrobial Agents
• In Vivo Models of Infection and Chemotherapy

Drs. Galpin, Kessler and Deresinski are among the very first physicians in the United States who had the courage to work with the HIV/AIDS population to try to find a cure. When most other doctors shunned these patients, these physicians were “in the trenches”, trying whatever could be thought of to save their lives.

• When the first drug candidates (such as AZT) became available for clinical testing, these physicians were among the first to not only to participate in systematic clinical trials, but also to organize such trials on the community level. The CVs attached for each of these three doctors lists the various AIDS trials groups that they helped to organize.
• Moreover, these physicians have been very creative in the drug combinations that they put together. Long before the name Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (“HAART”) was given to the concept of combining different AIDS drugs (in order to minimize the chance of resistance developing), it was these physicians who pioneered the concept, and who taught their students the scientific rationale for such combinations. In fact, one of the excellent students to whom Professor Galpin taught this concept of combinations was Dr. David Ho, the famous scholar.
• Here is one example among many that illustrates the creativity of these physicians: A few years ago, Dr. Galpin was giving some thought to the syncytia (clumps) that certain white blood cells called T cells are well-known to form in AIDS patients. He reasoned that the anti-leukemia drug hydroxyurea might well be helpful in treating patients with HIV/AIDS. He approached the giant pharmaceutical firm BMS – the manufacturer of hydroxyurea – with this concept, that company agreed with the prediction and set up clinical trials, and those trials showed the drug to be very successful. BMS has since made a fortune selling its drug to the AIDS market, and, in 1999, they gave Dr. Galpin the “Distinguished Investigator of the Year” Award.
• It is precisely because of the vast experience that Drs. Galpin, Kessler and Deresinski have had with anti-HIV drugs (as well as hepatitis drugs) that the pharmaceutical companies value them as key consultants. As a result, these physicians are aware of new drugs that are just becoming available commercially, and that are excellent candidates to be used in Asia.

Dr. Karen Lindsay has been a world-class leader in developing and testing drugs and vaccines to treat and control hepatitis. Her C.V. lists the numerous pharmaceutical companies whose drugs she has tested. It also lists the numerous hepatitis-related civic groups – such as the American Liver Foundation – on which she is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board or otherwise active. When President Nixon opened relationships with the People’s Republic of China, Dr. Lindsay was a member of the very first group of physicians that the PRC invited in to study the health care delivery system.

Dr. Stephen Prior is an expert in developing vaccines against agents of biological warfare. In addition, Dr. Prior routinely advises the following institutions in the U.S. on preparedness for catastrophic events, whether such events are “natural” (e.g. SARS and the other emerging diseases) or manmade (e.g. in the case of biological warfare):

The U.S. White House

• The U.S. Congress
• The U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare
• The U.S. Department of Defense

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