NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - President Bush met with some of the most powerful men in the drug industry Friday to address the nation's need for an avian flu vaccine, the White House said.

Bush's afternoon powwow included the following chief executive officers: Richard Clark of Merck & Co., Inc. (down $1.33 to $25.50, Research), Robert Essner of Wyeth (down $0.36 to $45.71, Research), Jean-Pierre Garnier of GlaxoSmithKline (up $0.29 to $51.69, Research), David Mott of MedImmune (down $0.58 to $32.93, Research), Howard Pien of Chiron (up $0.05 to $43.32, Research), and David Williams of Aventis Pasteur, the vaccine-making subsidiary of Sanofi-Aventis (up $0.22 to $42.24, Research).

The president's meeting is the administration's latest effort to address concerns over avian flu, also known as H5N1, a virus that can be transmitted from birds to humans and has killed at least 60 people in Asia. The Senate has approved nearly $4 billion to stockpile medications to protect the populace against the threat of a flu pandemic, and has already awarded French drug giant Sanofi-Aventis $100 million to produce a vaccine.

The specter of avian flu has generated much excitement this week. On Tuesday, Bush told reporters he was "concerned about what an avian flu outbreak could mean for the United States and the world" and cited martial law as an option in dealing with an outbreak.

On Thursday, scientists revealed that the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed tens of millions of people was transmitted from birds to humans, arousing fears that it could happen again. Also on Thursday, U.S. secretary of health and human services Michael Leavitt said the world is "woefully unprepared" for a pandemic.

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