WSW Develops and Secures Funding for the National Strategy on Pandemic Influenza
In Brief
- Secured over $6.6 billion in federal appropriations across a series of spending bills to implement the ambitious $7.1 billion National Strategy on Pandemic Influenza.
- Enabled the federal government to purchase and stockpile 50 million courses of antiviral treatments, creating a robust national defense and response capability ahead of a potential pandemic.
- Successfully orchestrated a multi-pronged advocacy campaign that educated Congress, prepared executive testimony, and engaged with OMB, establishing a level of trust that led to the firm being tapped again during the subsequent H1N1 crisis.
WSW was privileged to work for Genentech as part of a team charged with raising awareness about pandemic influenza, crafting a comprehensive plan to prepare and respond to a pandemic influenza outbreak, and securing full funding for national preparedness and response efforts.
WSW’s role in this effort was straightforward but ambitious: secure funding to implement the $7.1 billion National Strategy on Pandemic Influenza (NSPI). To achieve this goal, our team partnered with third-party public health groups to conduct extensive outreach to the relevant authorizers and appropriators in the House and Senate. This involved educating legislators and staffers on the importance of the national preparedness efforts and encouraging the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to accelerate preparedness and response efforts. WSW also helped the client’s CEO prepare for his congressional testimony on H5N1 and worked to reinforce to legislators the urgency of his message.
The outcome of these efforts was the appropriation in a series of spending bills of more than $6.6 billion over a three-year period to implement the program, and the federal government was able to purchase and stockpile 50 million courses of antiviral treatments. With the emergence of the H1N1 pandemic influenza strain, WSW was again tapped for efforts related to replenishing antiviral stockpiles and deploying countermeasures from the Strategic National Stockpile.