Top quotes from the Health Summit

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The following are some of the top quotes from the 2006 Reuters Health Summit:

GLAXOSMITHKLINE CEO JEAN-PIERRE GARNIER:

"It's a very tough business. It's a very tough business model, where the only certainty is you are going to lose your entire book of business every 12 years or so."

On delay in getting cervical cancer vaccine to market with Merck already in the space: "A three month delay on a drug that's going to be a blockbuster for 15 to 20 years is not to me a big event."

MERCK CEO RICHARD CLARK:

"I think we're getting some of our swagger back. We're going to save this company, but we're not close to declaring victory."

On the acquisition of Sirna and its RNAi technology: "I've never seen our scientists more excited. This is breakthrough. It could be the future of our industry."

On very early stage drug research: "Any day you come in and the mouse is frowning is not a good day."

ASTRAZENECA CEO DAVID BRENNAN

On Americans' sense of entitlement about access to health care: "People want to have choice, they want to know what's available, and if it's good, they want to have it. Americans have a funny approach to this -- we think death is optional. We treat an 87-year-old person with pancreatic cancer the same way we treat an 18-year-old with pancreatic cancer. That's not the case outside this country."

NOVARTIS HEAD OF CORPORATE RESEARCH PAUL HERRLING

On the potential of embryonic stem cells research if U.S. restrictions are lifted: "Very clearly if the full power of the U.S. scientific community would be unleashed, because they could now use NIH (National Institutes of Health) money, the probability that breakthroughs would happen in the U.S. would drastically increase."

BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB INTERIM CEO JAMES CORNELIUS:

On stepping in to replace Peter Dolan instead of spending more time with his wife in Hawaii as promised: "I don't have to work for a living anymore. It's at some personal sacrifice that I'm doing it."

STRYKER CEO STEPHEN MACMILLAN:

On Department of Justice probe into price fixing among top orthopedic device makers: "I consider this a little bit like looking for weapons of mass destruction ... It was one sales rep in one geography, and no other company bit. The right thing to do is for the government to back off and understand that."  Continued...