Update

Opening remarks presented by Texas A&M President Elsa A. Murano at media briefing to discuss financial agreement between the university and the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

February 20, 2008
3 p.m.

Howdy, and thank you for joining me this afternoon, particularly on short notice.

I am here today for two reasons. First, to make it abundantly clear that as president of Texas A&M University, I am fully committed to transparency and accountability to the citizens of Texas and the United States, who trust us to be good stewards of their tax dollars. Be assured, that commitment extends throughout my entire administration. And second, to update you regarding our vaccine and therapeutic research, which as you know, has come under review by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and related federal health agencies.

Our vaccine and therapeutic research, although relatively small in terms of actual dollars, representing less than 1 percent of our $570 million annual research expenditures, is, nonetheless, a significant and critical part of our efforts to protect the citizens of our community, state and nation from those who may choose to do us harm.

Texas A&M has a long and distinguished history of producing high-quality applied and basic research involving infectious agents – Brucella, which causes brucellosis, and Coxiella, which causes Q fever – both infectious diseases that primarily impact animals, but can be spread to humans.

The efforts of our researchers and their work in the laboratory and with animals undoubtedly will result in important findings in our effort to develop diagnostic tests, treatments and preventive vaccinations that will detect and eradicate these potential threats to human and animal health.

Unfortunately, these biological agents, or toxins, are potential bioterrorist threats as well. Our researchers here say Texas A&M has made tremendous strides in creating the knowledge base necessary to develop vaccines and therapeutic agents should the need arise to deal with widespread, deliberate dissemination of these substances to an unprotected general population. Given Texas A&M’s long history of serving our country and vast knowledge and experience working with these substances, it is crucial that we resume this research at the earliest possible date.

In response to the CDC review, Texas A&M has taken aggressive measures to address each and every one of the findings, encompassing our safety and security measures, staffing, processes, procedures and technology. Our top priority has and will always be the safety of our students, faculty, staff, and the overall community, as well as the security of our laboratories.

My administration is firmly committed to zero tolerance in our research safety and compliance programs as well as transparency in these areas, and we will continue to cooperate fully with the CDC and all other federal health agencies. We are committed to working collaboratively with CDC officials and other research partners to develop a model program for research and compliance in this area, one that we hope can and will be emulated across the country.

As you are certainly aware, the review process has been quite comprehensive. In addition to a review by the CDC, officials with the Office of the Inspector General within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services conducted a separate review. We have been waiting for some time to be notified by the Inspector General’s office about an outcome resulting from the issues raised in the CDC report. Because our research in this area is so important, we proactively proposed a large financial agreement in an unprecedented effort to strongly indicate our desire to resume research in this area as expeditiously as possible. Late Tuesday afternoon, we received confirmation that the Office of the Inspector General has accepted our financial commitment of $1 million.

We understand fully that Texas A&M is being held to new standards of accountability in our research safety and compliance programs. We are confident that we now have a model program in terms of accountability. This is a status that we will gladly accept.

We will pay this financial settlement expeditiously, using funds allocated for research compliance, as we are firmly committed to our vaccine and therapeutic research. This will allow us to move one step closer in continuing this important, potentially life-saving research – with the CDC and other federal health agencies as our partners.

As part of the next step in putting this issue behind us, we have received word that the CDC will send a small team to the Texas A&M campus in early March as part of the recertification process for our vaccine and therapeutic research. We are looking forward to their return visit, and again, restarting this research that is vital to public health and safety.

I appreciate your time today, and would be happy to answer a few of your questions.