Post by the Scribe on Nov 28, 2021 10:37:53 GMT
Ethics
HHS, Inc.: Big Pharma Ties Draw Pandemic Response Concerns
old.pogo.org/investigation/2020/10/hhs-inc-big-pharma-ties-draw-pandemic-response-concerns/
BY NICK SCHWELLENBACH & LOUIS GODDARD | FILED UNDER INVESTIGATION | OCTOBER 26, 2020
Pharmaceutical and medical industry ties of top political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are troubling experts and lawmakers, who are concerned that those ties and pressure from the White House could be forcing health and safety to take a back seat to rushing out COVID-19 drugs. A Project On Government Oversight (POGO) and Anti-Corruption Data Collective investigation reveals previously unreported details in the case of a company—with ties to HHS’s second-highest official—that won a pandemic response contract worth up to almost a half billion dollars. When viewed alongside other cases of politically connected companies winning large pandemic-related HHS contracts, questions of favoritism are difficult to avoid.
“Especially during the ongoing pandemic, the safety and wellbeing of our families is of the utmost importance,” wrote Representative Katie Porter (D-CA) earlier this year, calling for an investigation into the HHS’s revolving door, the movement of officials to and from companies and industry groups with business before a federal agency. “We cannot put patients’ lives at risk to boost the profits of large pharmaceutical companies. Their lobbying is no substitute for science-based public health.”
Key Findings
There appear to be about as many HHS appointees who were formerly lobbyists in the nearly four years of the Trump administration as during the entire 16 years of the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations;
HHS’s second-highest official, Eric Hargan, simultaneously worked for medical industry clients and served on Trump’s HHS transition team, when he had access to inside information;
One of Hargan’s former clients—Alvogen—won its first-ever HHS contract, worth up to nearly half a billion dollars, from an office run by a direct subordinate of Hargan;
Hargan’s subordinate allegedly began pushing to buy the drug sold by Alvogen around the same time lobbyists working for the company began lobbying HHS;
An HHS whistleblower says that the contract was for an “inferior” drug; and
Weeks after that HHS contract was awarded, a lawsuit was unsealed alleging that HHS had been previously defrauded into buying that same drug from another company. The lawsuit alleges the drug “is more likely to perpetuate an influenza pandemic than to stop one.”
HHS, Inc.: Big Pharma Ties Draw Pandemic Response Concerns
old.pogo.org/investigation/2020/10/hhs-inc-big-pharma-ties-draw-pandemic-response-concerns/
BY NICK SCHWELLENBACH & LOUIS GODDARD | FILED UNDER INVESTIGATION | OCTOBER 26, 2020
Pharmaceutical and medical industry ties of top political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are troubling experts and lawmakers, who are concerned that those ties and pressure from the White House could be forcing health and safety to take a back seat to rushing out COVID-19 drugs. A Project On Government Oversight (POGO) and Anti-Corruption Data Collective investigation reveals previously unreported details in the case of a company—with ties to HHS’s second-highest official—that won a pandemic response contract worth up to almost a half billion dollars. When viewed alongside other cases of politically connected companies winning large pandemic-related HHS contracts, questions of favoritism are difficult to avoid.
“Especially during the ongoing pandemic, the safety and wellbeing of our families is of the utmost importance,” wrote Representative Katie Porter (D-CA) earlier this year, calling for an investigation into the HHS’s revolving door, the movement of officials to and from companies and industry groups with business before a federal agency. “We cannot put patients’ lives at risk to boost the profits of large pharmaceutical companies. Their lobbying is no substitute for science-based public health.”
Key Findings
There appear to be about as many HHS appointees who were formerly lobbyists in the nearly four years of the Trump administration as during the entire 16 years of the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations;
HHS’s second-highest official, Eric Hargan, simultaneously worked for medical industry clients and served on Trump’s HHS transition team, when he had access to inside information;
One of Hargan’s former clients—Alvogen—won its first-ever HHS contract, worth up to nearly half a billion dollars, from an office run by a direct subordinate of Hargan;
Hargan’s subordinate allegedly began pushing to buy the drug sold by Alvogen around the same time lobbyists working for the company began lobbying HHS;
An HHS whistleblower says that the contract was for an “inferior” drug; and
Weeks after that HHS contract was awarded, a lawsuit was unsealed alleging that HHS had been previously defrauded into buying that same drug from another company. The lawsuit alleges the drug “is more likely to perpetuate an influenza pandemic than to stop one.”