Common Dreams – 9/8/20
“It is simply remarkable and beyond dangerous that President Trump has so politicized the vaccine process to the point that drug corporations—the least trusted industry in America—are now the messengers on vaccine safety,” said the public health advocacy group Lower Drug Prices Now. “It is the job of elected officials and government regulators, not corporations, to police safety for consumers. Yet, Donald Trump continues to prioritize his own narrow political goals over the needs of the American people, undermining public health and ignoring his responsibility as president.”
NPR – 9/4/20
“The insiders are making plenty of profit and they’re mostly doing it with our money,” said Margarida Jorge, a campaign director with the group Lower Drug Prices Now. “I’m absolutely for deploying public money in the interests of public health and the public good. But we don’t have any commitment from the administration that any of this investment is ultimately going to benefit real people.”
Washington Post – 8/25/20
“The HHS Office of Inspector General, responding to a complaint by the advocacy groups Public Citizen and Lower Drug Prices Now, said in July that Slaoui would be in his post for longer than 130 days, which did not qualify him as a “special government employee,” a designation that would have required him to make financial disclosures and follow conflict-of-interest rules.”
Bloomberg – 8/6/20
Meanwhile, two consumer groups yesterday filed complaints with a federal government watchdog questioning the role of the White House’s Covid-19 vaccine czar. Public Citizen and Lower Drug Prices Now filed two complaints with the HHS Office of the Inspector General asking about Moncef Slaoui’s role guiding vaccine development and whether he may be subject to the same conflict of interest requirements as government employees. Slaoui was the head of GlaxoSmithKline’s vaccines department and maintains millions of dollars in company stock.
Salon – 8/5
“These Executive Orders are not about policy, they’re about politics,” Margarida Jorge, the campaign director for Lower Drug Prices Now, told the Post. “The only reason for President Trump’s rekindled interest in lowering drug prices is his dwindling poll numbers, and realization that our country’s senior citizens are abandoning him thanks to his bungled handling of the coronavirus crisis.”
Wall Street Journal – 8/3/20
Politico – 7/31/20
Executives with pharma ties are exempt from disclosing conflicts.
The Trump administration is hiring consultants with drug industry ties to steer its effort to find a coronavirus vaccine under a contract that allows them to avoid disclosing potential conflicts of interest.
