Gilead

<p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">disaster cap'lism?!</font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">evil b/c wants subsidy AND MONOPOLY TO PRICE GOUGE PROFITEER FROM COVID PANDEMIC</font></span></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">evil pending: they get subsidies, but AlSO want monopoly protection for orphan drug jammed in just before 200K #</font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02483-w" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02483-w</a></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NO LNx</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">14 September 2021</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Correction 22 October 2021</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The tangled history of mRNA vaccines</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Hundreds of scientists had worked on mRNA vaccines for decades before the coronavirus pandemic brought a breakthrough.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Elie Dolgin</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Illustration that shows the mRNA code used in the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine, with a syringe containing a lipid nanoparticle.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The RNA sequence used in the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech (? is a modified form of the uridine nucleotide, U).Credit: Nik Spencer/Nature</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In late 1987, Robert Malone performed a landmark experiment. He mixed strands of messenger RNA with droplets of fat, to create a kind of molecular stew. Human cells bathed in this genetic gumbo absorbed the mRNA, and began producing proteins from it1.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Realizing that this discovery might have far-reaching potential in medicine, Malone, a graduate student at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, later jotted down some notes, which he signed and dated.</span>&nbsp;<b>If cells could create proteins from mRNA delivered into them, he wrote on 11 January 1988, it might be possible to “treat RNA as a drug”. Another member of the Salk lab signed the notes, too, for posterity. Later that year, Malone’s experiments showed that frog embryos absorbed such mRNA2. It was the first time anyone had used fatty droplets to ease mRNA’s passage into a living organism.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">Those experiments were a stepping stone towards two of the most important and profitable vaccines in history: the mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines given to hundreds of millions of people around the world. Global sales of these are expected to top US$50 billion in 2021 alone.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>But the path to success was not direct. For many years after Malone’s experiments, which themselves had drawn on the work of other researchers, mRNA was seen as too unstable and expensive to be used as a drug or a vaccine. Dozens of academic labs and companies worked on the idea, struggling with finding the right formula of fats and nucleic acids — the building blocks of mRNA vaccines.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Today’s mRNA jabs have innovations that were invented years after Malone’s time in the lab, including chemically modified RNA and different types of fat bubble to ferry them into cells (see ‘Inside an mRNA COVID vaccine’). Still, Malone, who calls himself the “inventor of mRNA vaccines”, thinks his work hasn’t been given enough credit. “I’ve been written out of history,” he told Nature.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Inside an mRNA COVID vaccine: infographic that shows the innovations used in the mRNA and nanoparticle of the vaccine.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Nik Spencer/Nature; Adapted from M. D. Buschmann et al. Vaccines 9, 65 (2021)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The debate over who deserves credit for pioneering the technology is heating up as awards start rolling out&nbsp;</b>— and the speculation is getting more intense in advance of the Nobel prize announcements next month. But formal prizes restricted to only a few scientists will fail to recognize the many contributors to mRNA’s medical development. In reality, the path to mRNA vaccines drew on the work of hundreds of researchers over more than 30 years.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The story illuminates the way that many scientific discoveries become life-changing innovations: with decades of dead ends, rejections and battles over potential profits, but also generosity, curiosity and dogged persistence against scepticism and doubt. “It’s a long series of steps,</b>” says Paul Krieg, a developmental biologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who made his own contribution in the mid-1980s,&nbsp;<b>“and you never know what’s going to be useful”.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The beginnings of mRNA</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Malone’s experiments didn’t come out of the blue. As far back as 1978, scientists had used fatty membrane structures called liposomes to transport mRNA into mouse3 and human4 cells to induce protein expression. The liposomes packaged and protected the mRNA and then fused with cell membranes to deliver the genetic material into cells. These experiments themselves built on years of work with liposomes and with mRNA; both were discovered in the 1960s (see ‘The history of mRNA vaccines’).</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The history of mRNA vaccines: A timeline that shows the key scientific innovations in the development of mRNA vaccines.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Nik Spencer/Nature; Adapted from U. Sahin et al. Nature Rev. Drug Discov. 13, 759–780 (2014) and X. Hou et al. Nature Rev. Mater. https://doi.org/gmjsn5 (2021).</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Back then, however, few researchers were thinking about mRNA as a medical product — not least because there was not yet a way to manufacture the genetic material in a laboratory. Instead, they hoped to use it to interrogate basic molecular processes. Most scientists repurposed mRNA from rabbit blood, cultured mouse cells or some other animal source.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That changed in 1984, when Krieg and other members of a team led by developmental biologist Douglas Melton and molecular biologists Tom Maniatis and Michael Green at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, used an RNA-synthesis enzyme (taken from a virus) and other tools to produce biologically active mRNA in the lab5 — a method that, at its core, remains in use today.</span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;</span>Krieg then injected the lab-made mRNA into frog eggs, and showed that it worked just like the real thing6.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">B<b>oth Melton and Krieg say they saw synthetic mRNA mainly as a research tool for studying gene function and activity<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">.&nbsp;</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 1987, after Melton found that the mRNA could be used both to activate and to prevent protein production, he helped to form a company called Oligogen (later renamed&nbsp;<b>Gilead Sciences&nbsp;</b>in Foster City, California) t</span>o explore ways to use synthetic RNA to block the expression of target genes — with an eye to treating disease. Vaccines weren’t on the mind of anyone in his lab, or their collaborators.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Diptych of portraits of Paul Krieg and Douglas Melton</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Paul Krieg (left) and Douglas Melton (right), who worked on ways to synthesize mRNA in the laboratory.Credit: University of Arizona; Kevin Wolf/AP Images for HHMI</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“RNA in general had a reputation for unbelievable instability,” says Krieg. “Everything around RNA was cloaked in caution.” That might explain why Harvard’s technology-development office elected not to patent the group’s RNA-synthesis approach. Instead, the Harvard researchers simply gave their reagents to Promega Corporation, a lab-supplies company in Madison, Wisconsin, which made the RNA-synthesis tools available to researchers. They received modest royalties and a case of Veuve Clicquot Champagne in return.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Patent disputes</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Years later, Malone followed the Harvard team’s tactics to synthesize mRNA for his experiments. But he added a new kind of liposome, one that carried a positive charge, which enhanced the material’s ability to engage with the negatively charged backbone of mRNA. These liposomes were developed by Philip Felgner, a biochemist who now leads the Vaccine Research and Development Center at the&nbsp;<b>University of California, Irvine.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Diptych of portraits of Philip Felgner and Robert Malone</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Philip Felgner (left) and Robert Malone.Credit: Steve Zylius/UCI; Robert Malone</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Despite his success using the liposomes to deliver mRNA into human cells and frog embryos, Malone never earned a PhD. He fell out with his supervisor, <b>Salk </b>gene-therapy researcher Inder Verma and, in 1989, left graduate studies early to work for Felgner at <b>Vical, a recently formed start-up in San Diego, California</b>. There, they and collaborators at the University of Wisconsin–Madison showed that the lipid–mRNA complexes could spur protein production in mice7</span>. (<b>Malone and his Vical coworkers also explored using mRNA for vaccines: their early patent filings describe injecting mRNA coding for HIV proteins into mice, and observing some protection against infection, although not the production of specific immune cells or molecules; this work was never published in a peer-reviewed journal</b>).</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[An excerpt from Robert Malone’s lab notebooks, describing the 1989 synthesis of mRNA for injection into mice</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Then things got messy. Both Vical (with the University of Wisconsin) and the Salk began filing for patents in March 1989. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But the Salk soon abandoned its patent claim,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> and in 1990, Verma joined Vical’s advisory board.</span></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Malone contends that Verma and Vical struck a back-room deal so that the relevant intellectual property went to Vical. Malone was listed as one inventor among several, but he no longer stood to profit personally from subsequent licensing deals, as he would have from any Salk-issued patents. Malone’s conclusion: “They got rich on the products of my mind.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Verma and Felgner categorically deny Malone’s charges. “It’s complete nonsense,</b>” Verma told Nature. The decision to drop the patent application rested with the Salk’s technology-transfer office, he says. (Verma resigned from the Salk in 2018, following allegations of sexual harassment, which he continues to deny.)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Malone left Vical in August 1989, citing disagreements with Felgner over “scientific judgment” and “credit for my intellectual contributions”</b>. He completed medical school and did a year of clinical training before working in academia, where he tried to continue research on mRNA vaccines but struggled to secure funding. (In 1996, for example, he unsuccessfully applied to a California state research agency for money to develop a mRNA vaccine to combat seasonal coronavirus infections.) Malone focused on DNA vaccines and delivery technologies instead.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 2001, he moved into commercial work and consulting. And in the past few months, he has started publicly attacking the safety of the mRNA vaccines that his research helped to enable. Malone says, for instance, that proteins produced by vaccines can damage the body’s cells and that the risks of vaccination outweigh the benefits for children and young adults — claims that other scientists and health officials have repeatedly refuted.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Manufacturing challenges</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 1991, Vical entered into a multimillion-dollar research collaboration and licensing pact with US firm&nbsp;<b>Merck,&nbsp;</b>one of the world’s largest vaccine developers. Merck scientists evaluated the mRNA technology in mice with the aim of creating an influenza vaccine, but then abandoned that approach. “The cost and feasibility of manufacturing just gave us pause,” says Jeffrey Ulmer, a former Merck scientist who now consults with companies on vaccine-research issues.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Researchers at a small biotech firm in Strasbourg, France, called Transgène, felt the same way. There, in 1993, a team led by Pierre Meulien, working with industrial and academic partners, was the first to show that an mRNA in a liposome could elicit a specific antiviral immune response in mice8.&nbsp;<b>(Another exciting advance had come in 1992, when scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla used mRNA to replace a deficient protein in rats, to treat a metabolic disorder9. But it would take almost two decades before independent labs reported similar success.</b>)......</div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Pro-China Conspiracy Campaign Attacks COVID Drugmaker</b></div><div>BAD MEDICINE</div><div>Facebook took down troll accounts linked to pro-China disinformation for spreading conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and pharma giant Gilead</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Adam Rawnsley</div><div>Updated Aug. 21, 2020 4:45AM ET / Published Aug. 20, 2020</div><div>
</div><div>Samantha Hill’s crazed COVID-19 spaghetti chart looks like something out of an It’s Always Sunny meme—with blame for everyone from Steve Bannon to seafood export companies. But the intricate conspiracy isn’t an organic act of lunacy. Instead, the content and fake accounts pushing it are linked to a known pro-China disinformation outfit that’s looking to blame both the U.S. and&nbsp;<b>Gilead,</b>&nbsp;maker of a popular COVID-19 drug, for the global coronavirus pandemic.</div><div>
</div><div>Facebook says the fake accounts found by The Daily Beast are linked to a previous effort by sock puppets to attack the Chinese Communist Party’s adversaries and spread myths about the origin of the coronavirus. So what’s behind this latest attempt to hoodwink social media users about where COVID-19 came from and the drugmaker helping to fight it?</div><div>
</div><div>Welcome to Rabbit Hole, where we dive deep on the biggest story. It’s for Beast Inside members only.&nbsp;</div></div><div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">a<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">lmost 150 health and poverty activist campaigns, including&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/" target="blank" rel="follow noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Médecins Sans Frontières</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">, have urged&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.gilead.com/" target="blank" rel="follow noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Gilead Sciences</span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">&nbsp;to waive patent and exclusivity rights for potential COVID-19 treatment remdesivir.</span></font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/robert-reich-heres-how-big-money-corrupts-our-politics-and-how-to-fix-it/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/robert-reich-heres-how-big-money-corrupts-our-politics-and-how-to-fix-it/</font></a></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>corporate money is dominating our democracy.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s difficult to do anything—increase the minimum wage, reverse climate change, get Medicare for All, end police killings, fight systemic racism, shrink our bloated military—when big money controls our politics and dictates what policies are and aren’t enacted.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The pandemic has made that clearer than ever.<b>&nbsp;The CARES Act, passed in late March as our pandemic response began, quietly provided huge benefits to wealthy Americans and big corporations. One provision doled out $135 billion in tax relief to people making at least half a million dollars, the richest 1% of American taxpayers.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This $135 billion is three times more than the measly $42 billion allocated in the CARES Act for safety-net programs like food and housing aid. It’s just shy of the $150 billion going to struggling state governments, and vastly more than the $100 billion being spent on overwhelmed hospitals and other crucial public health services.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">as Americans are still suffering massive unemployment and the ravages of the pandemic, lobbyists are crawling all over Capitol Hill and the White House is seeking continued subsidies for the rich and for corporations—while demanding an end to supplemental assistance for average working people, the poor, and the unemployed.</span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s corruption in action, friends. And it’s undermining our democracy at every turn.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ask yourself how, during a global pandemic, the total net worth of U.S. billionaires has climbed from $2.9 trillion to $3.5 trillion, when more than 45.5 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits.</font></p><div class="clearfix" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; clear: both;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Is it their skill? Their luck? Their insight? No. It’s their monopolies, enabled by their stranglehold on American democracy… monopolies like Amazon, Google, and Facebook, which have grown even larger during the pandemic.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It’s also their access to insider information so they can do well in the stock market, like Senator Richard Burr, chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, and Senator Kelly Loeffler, whose husband happens to be chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. Both were fully briefed on the likely effects of the coronavirus last February and promptly unloaded their shares of stock in companies that would be hit hardest.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And it’s the tax cuts and subsidies they’ve squeezed out of government.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You are paying for all of this—not just as taxpayers but as consumers.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When you follow the money, you can see clearly how every aspect of American life has been corrupted.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Take prescription drugs. We spend tens of billions of dollars on prescriptions every year, far more per person than citizens in any other developed country. Now that millions of Americans are unemployed and without insurance, they need affordable prescription drugs more than ever.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Yet even the prices of drugs needed by coronavirus patients are skyrocketing.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Big Pharma&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">giant </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Gilead is charging a whopping $3,120 for its COVID drug, Remdesivir, even though the drug was developed with a $70,000,000 grant from the federal government paid for by American taxpayers.</span></b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Once again, Big Pharma is set to profit on the people’s dime. And they get away with it because our lawmakers depend on their campaign donations to remain in power.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">As you watch this,<b>&nbsp;Mitch McConnell is actively blocking a bill drafted by Senate Republicans to reduce drug prices</b>—after taking more than $280,000 from pharmaceutical companies so far this election season.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Big Pharma is just one example. This vicious cycle is found in virtually every sector, and it’s why we continue to be met with politicians who don’t have our best interests at heart.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So how do we get big money out of our democracy?</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A good starting point can be found in the sweeping reform package known as<b>&nbsp;H.R. 1—the For the People Act.</b>&nbsp;The bill closes loopholes that favor big corporations and the wealthy, makes it easier for all of us to vote, and strengthens the power of small donors through public financing of elections—a system which matches $6 of public funds for every $1 of small donations.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The For the People Act would also bar congresspeople from serving on corporate boards, require presidents to publicly disclose their tax returns, and make executive appointees recuse themselves in cases where there is a conflict of interest.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These are just a few examples of tangible solutions that already exist to rein in unprecedented corruption and stop America’s slide toward oligarchy—but there’s much more we can and should do.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The important thing to remember is that the big money takeover of our democracy prevents us from advancing all of the policies we need to overhaul our racist, oppressive system and create a society that works for the many, not the few</font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/05/15/fact-check-china-doesnt-own-patent-covid-19-treatment-remdesivir/5194192002/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/05/15/fact-check-china-doesnt-own-patent-covid-19-treatment-remdesivir/5194192002/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the&nbsp;<span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">claim: China owns the patent&nbsp;for the drug remdesivir</span></font></b></div><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The origins, utility and ownership of potential coronavirus treatments are an increasingly discussed subject online, making the topic a ripe target for conspiracy theories.</font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The drug remdesivir has emerged as a centerpiece of many theories claiming that various groups and individuals stand to benefit from the drug's use as a treatment for COVID-19.</font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Isn’t it just an interesting coincidence that Remdesivir is made by Gilead and is the 'CURE'&nbsp;for COVID-19 … . And here’s where it gets interesting China holds the patent on the drug through an agreement with Gilead’s drug patent sharing subsidy branch called UNITAID who has an office near Wuhan,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10212873886320710&set=a.1267424704496&type=3&theater" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">a graphic on Facebook shared more than 300 times reads</a>.</font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And you’ll never guess who are the main financial investors in UNITAID…none other than George Soros, Bill & Melinda Gates, and WHO,” the post continues.</font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Remdesivir is an antiviral drug developed by the firm Gilead Sciences, which maintains the&nbsp;U.S. patent on the drug as a coronavirus treatment. No Chinese institution has a recognized patent for the drug.</font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong class="gnt_ar_b_al" style="margin-right: 3px;">Fact check:&nbsp;</strong><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/03/23/coronavirus-fact-check-whats-true-and-whats-false-covid-19/2898043001/" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">What's true and what's false about coronavirus?</a></font></p><h2 class="gnt_ar_b_h2" style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 26px; margin: 28px 0px 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Remdesivir’s patents</font></h2><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.gilead.com/purpose/advancing-global-health/covid-19/about-remdesivir" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Remdesivir&nbsp;</a>has been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gilead.com/-/media/gilead-corporate/files/pdfs/covid-19/gilead_rdv-development-fact-sheet-2020.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">researched by Gilead as far back as 2009</a>&nbsp;as a treatment for viruses ranging from hepatitis C and respiratory syncytial virus to Ebola and now COVID-19.</font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gilead first&nbsp;<a href="https://patents.google.com/patent/US9724360B2/en" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">received a patent for the drug</a>&nbsp;as a treatment for Ebola in 2017. In fall 2015, Gilead applied for two patents for remdesivir, one for&nbsp;<a href="https://patents.google.com/patent/US10251904B2/en" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">combating coronaviruses</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://patents.google.com/patent/US9724360B2/en" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">another for filoviruses</a>, the family of pathogens that includes Ebola. Both were approved in spring 2019.&nbsp;</font></p><h2 class="gnt_ar_b_h2" style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 26px; margin: 28px 0px 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Use treating COVID-19</font></h2><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-clinical-trial-shows-remdesivir-accelerates-recovery-advanced-covid-19" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">In April, a National Institutes of Health study</a>&nbsp;found the drug to speed the recovery time of critically ill COVID-19 patients by 31%. Gilead has since said that, with federal assistance, it will begin&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2020/05/03/coronavirus-treatment-drug-remdesivir-coming-hospitals-week/3074612001/" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">deploying remdesivir to hospitals around the country</a>.</font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Gilead Sciences remains the only organization in the world entitled to intellectual property rights over remdesivir&nbsp;as a treatment for COVID-19.</b></font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In January, Chinese researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-05/china-is-trying-to-patent-gilead-s-experimental-coronavirus-drug" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">filed for a patent to use remdesivir</a>&nbsp;as a treatment against COVID-19. At the time, no research had been published showing that remdesivir was effective. Even so, the drug was already&nbsp;<a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-02/11/c_138771962.htm" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">being deployed for clinical trials in Wuhan</a>&nbsp;and elsewhere.</font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In early February, the Chinese company BrightGene Bio-Medical Technology also said that it had been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thepharmaletter.com/in-brief/brief-china-s-brightgene-latest-to-copy-remdesivir-antiviral" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">approved to&nbsp;produce remdesivir</a>&nbsp;by the Chinese government, though&nbsp;<a href="https://time.com/5793357/china-company-censured-coronavirus/" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">regulators eventually said the company had not received approval&nbsp;</a>from the government nor Gilead Sciences.</font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Chinese government has not approved a patent for the drug, a move that would likely&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7156563/" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">draw further criticism from the United States</a>&nbsp;and others concerned about Chinese violations of international norms regarding intellectual property.</font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Given the severity of the pandemic globally, however, several international groups have made repeated calls for the sharing of intellectual property rights relating to&nbsp;medicines and vaccines that can combat the new coronavirus.</font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong class="gnt_ar_b_al" style="margin-right: 3px;">Video:</strong><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/health/2020/04/30/remdesivir-antiviral-drug-tested-against-covid-19/3061178001/" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">What to know about antiviral drug remdesivir and COVID-19</a></font></p><h2 class="gnt_ar_b_h2" style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 26px; margin: 28px 0px 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Unitaid, Gates Foundation, WHO and potential international cooperation on&nbsp;treatments</font></h2><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://unitaid.org/about-us/#en" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Unitaid&nbsp;</a>is not a subsidiary of Gilead Sciences but rather a global health research initiative backed by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.un.org/en/" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">United Nations</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.who.int/" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">World Health Organization</a>&nbsp;to fund research projects combating a range of viruses.</font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Founded by the French government in 2006, the group is headquartered in Geneva and&nbsp;<a href="https://unitaid.org/how-we-work/donors/#en" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">funded by the governments</a>&nbsp;of Brazil, Chile, France, Norway, South Korea, Spain and the United Kingdom, as well as the&nbsp;<a href="https://unitaid.org/news-blog/unitaid-hails-new-us-50-million-contribution-bill-melinda-gates-foundation/#en" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation</a>.</font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Unitaid has no financial ties to George Soros or the Open Society Foundations, which Soros founded and manages.</font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/05/14/fact-check-anthony-fauci-bill-gates-wont-profit-remdesivir/3120063001/" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;">also does not have a patent</a>&nbsp;for the remdesivir and doesn't stand to profit from its use.</b></font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong class="gnt_ar_b_al" style="margin-right: 3px;">Fact check:</strong><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/05/14/fact-check-anthony-fauci-bill-gates-wont-profit-remdesivir/3120063001/" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Dr. Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates won't profit from drug remdesivir</a></font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In late March, Unitaid’s chair&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/b69afd98-a8af-40d9-b520-4231d9cac68f" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Marisol Touraine told the Financial Times</a>&nbsp;that “extraordinary circumstances” warranted “extraordinary solutions,” while endorsing a&nbsp;<a href="https://healthpolicy-watch.org/costa-rica-urges-who-to-lead-global-initiative-for-pooled-rights-to-covid-19-diagnostics-drugs-vaccines/" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">WHO-backed plan for companies to voluntarily pool intellectual property</a>&nbsp;governing any treatments or research that can be used in the fight against COVID-19.</font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I welcome his initiative & call for pooled rights to #COVID19 diagnostics, drugs & vaccines,” Tedros Adhanom, director-general of the World Health Organization,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/DrTedros/status/1243090557804691468" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">said of the proposal</a>, which would allow companies around the world to share intellectual property rights and produce patented goods with the consent of other members in any such initiative.</font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">the strategy is an attempt to temper competition between firms and countries as the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/05/09/coronavirus-vaccine-race-us-testing/5179665002/" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">race to find treatments and a potential vaccine for the new coronavirus intensifies</a></span>.</font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>On April 24, the WHO&nbsp;<a href="https://www.who.int/who-documents-detail/access-to-covid-19-tools-(act)-accelerator" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;">launched a cooperative initiative</a>&nbsp;called “Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator,” which would coordinate and fund support for coronavirus research by member states and institutions. Unitaid and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are listed as cosignatories.</b></font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The United States and China are not members of the coalition,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2020/04/24/covid19-coronavirus-who-vaccines-medicines-access/" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">which may ultimately include a patent pooling resolution</a>. Gilead Sciences has not licensed the production of remdesivir to any other firm as it continues to ramp up production of the drug.</font></p><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong class="gnt_ar_b_al" style="margin-right: 3px;">Fact check:&nbsp;</strong><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/05/09/fact-check-price-didnt-push-remdesivir-over-hydroxychloroquine/3094440001/" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Price didn't drive promotion of remdesivir over hydroxychloroquine</a></font></p><h2 class="gnt_ar_b_h2" style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 26px; margin: 28px 0px 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Our ruling: False</font></h2><p class="gnt_ar_b_p" style="margin: 14px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">No Chinese firm has an approved claim to a patent for remdesivir. No international organizations – including the Gates Foundations, Unitaid, the Open Societies Foundation, or the WHO – hold patents for the antiviral drug either. While there are efforts to pool patents for potential treatments, and thus&nbsp;alter the financial incentives of&nbsp;the parties to such pooling arrangements, the United States and China are not obligating their domestic firms to join these movements. Gilead Sciences, which owns the U.S. patent for promising COVID-19 treatment remdesivir, solely maintains&nbsp;the intellectual property rights to the drug. We rate this claim FALSE because it is not supported by our research.&nbsp;</font></p><h2 class="gnt_ar_b_h2" style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 26px; margin: 28px 0px 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Our fact-check sources:</font></h2><ul class="gnt_ar_b_ul" style="list-style: none; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px;"><li class="gnt_ar_b_ul_li"><a href="https://www.gilead.com/purpose/advancing-global-health/covid-19/about-remdesivir" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="">Gilead Sciences, About Remdesivir</font></a></li><li class="gnt_ar_b_ul_li"><a href="https://www.gilead.com/-/media/gilead-corporate/files/pdfs/covid-19/gilead_rdv-development-fact-sheet-2020.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Gilead Sciences, Early Development of Remdesivir</font></a></li><li class="gnt_ar_b_ul_li"><a href="https://patents.google.com/patent/US9724360B2/en" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Gilead Sciences 2017 Patent for Remdesivir</font></a></li><li class="gnt_ar_b_ul_li"><a href="https://patents.google.com/patent/US10251904B2/en" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Gilead Sciences 2019 Patent for Remdesivir Usage Against Coronaviruses</font></a></li><li class="gnt_ar_b_ul_li"><a href="https://patents.google.com/patent/US9724360B2/en" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Gilead Sciences 2019 Patent for Remdesivir Usage Against Filoviruses</font></a></li><li class="gnt_ar_b_ul_li"><a href="https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-clinical-trial-shows-remdesivir-accelerates-recovery-advanced-covid-19" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">National Institutes of Health, NIH clinical trial shows Remdesivir accelerates recovery from advanced COVID-19</font></a></li><li class="gnt_ar_b_ul_li"><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2020/05/03/coronavirus-treatment-drug-remdesivir-coming-hospitals-week/3074612001/" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">USA TODAY, Coronavirus treatment drug remdesivir to arrive in hospitals this week, Gilead CEO says</font></a></li><li class="gnt_ar_b_ul_li"><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-05/china-is-trying-to-patent-gilead-s-experimental-coronavirus-drug" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Bloomberg News, China Wants to Patent Gilead’s Experimental Coronavirus Drug</font></a></li><li class="gnt_ar_b_ul_li"><a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-02/11/c_138771962.htm" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">XinhuaNet, Over 60 percent of patients in clinical trial may try Remdesivir: expert</font></a></li><li class="gnt_ar_b_ul_li"><a href="https://www.thepharmaletter.com/in-brief/brief-china-s-brightgene-latest-to-copy-remdesivir-antiviral" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">ThePharmaLetter, China's BrightGene latest to copy remdesivir antiviral</font></a></li><li class="gnt_ar_b_ul_li"><a href="https://time.com/5793357/china-company-censured-coronavirus/" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Bloomberg, Chinese Biotech Company Censured for Claiming It Could Make Experimental Coronavirus Drug</font></a></li><li class="gnt_ar_b_ul_li"><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7156563/" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">European Journal of Risk Regulation, COVID-19, Patents and the Never-Ending Tension between Proprietary Rights and the Protection of Public Health</font></a></li><li class="gnt_ar_b_ul_li"><a href="https://unitaid.org/about-us/#en" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Unitaid, About Us</font></a></li><li class="gnt_ar_b_ul_li"><a href="https://unitaid.org/how-we-work/donors/#en" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Unitaid, Donors</font></a></li><li class="gnt_ar_b_ul_li"><a href="https://unitaid.org/news-blog/unitaid-hails-new-us-50-million-contribution-bill-melinda-gates-foundation/#en" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Gates Foundation, Press release about donation to Unitaid</font></a></li><li class="gnt_ar_b_ul_li"><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/05/14/fact-check-anthony-fauci-bill-gates-wont-profit-remdesivir/3120063001/" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">USA TODAY, Fact check: Dr. Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates won't profit from drug remdesivir</font></a></li><li class="gnt_ar_b_ul_li"><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/b69afd98-a8af-40d9-b520-4231d9cac68f" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Financial Times, Big drugmakers under pressure to share patents against coronavirus</font></a></li><li class="gnt_ar_b_ul_li"><a href="https://twitter.com/DrTedros/status/1243090557804691468" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus March 26 Tweet</font></a></li><li class="gnt_ar_b_ul_li"><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/05/09/coronavirus-vaccine-race-us-testing/5179665002/" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">USA TODAY, Latest on global search for coronavirus vaccine: 1st US candidate set for Phase 2; WHO tracks 8 efforts; Pfizer tests in humans</font></a></li><li class="gnt_ar_b_ul_li"><a href="https://www.who.int/who-documents-detail/access-to-covid-19-tools-(act)-accelerator" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">World Health Organization, Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator</font></a></li><li class="gnt_ar_b_ul_li"><a href="https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2020/04/24/covid19-coronavirus-who-vaccines-medicines-access/" target="blank" rel="noopener" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a" class="gnt_ar_b_a" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(0, 152, 254); outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="">STAT News, WHO launches ambitious global project to develop Covid-19 medical products</font></a></li></ul><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir</font></a></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b style="">Remdesivir</b>&nbsp;is a&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad-spectrum_antiviral_drug" title="Broad-spectrum antiviral drug" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">broad-spectrum</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiviral_medication" class="mw-redirect" title="Antiviral medication" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">antiviral medication</a>&nbsp;developed by the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biopharmaceutical" title="Biopharmaceutical" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">biopharmaceutical</a>&nbsp;company&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilead_Sciences" title="Gilead Sciences" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Gilead Sciences</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Scavone_2020_1-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#cite_note-Scavone_2020-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[1]</a></sup>&nbsp;As of 2020, remdesivir is being tested as a specific treatment for&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19" class="mw-redirect" title="COVID-19" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">COVID-19</a>, and has been authorized for emergency use in the U.S. and approved for use in Japan for people with severe symptoms.<sup id="cite_ref-FDA_EUA_2-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#cite_note-FDA_EUA-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[2]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FDA_EUA_PR_3-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#cite_note-FDA_EUA_PR-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[3]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-:0_4-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#cite_note-:0-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[4]</a></sup>&nbsp;It may shorten the time it takes to recover from the infection</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><sup id="cite_ref-Hopkins_5-0" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#cite_note-Hopkins-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[5]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;Treatment is given by&nbsp;</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intravenous" class="mw-redirect" title="Intravenous" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">injection into a vein</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[6]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Mehta2020_7-0" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#cite_note-Mehta2020-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Side effects may include liver inflammation and an infusion-related reaction with nausea, low blood pressure, and sweating.<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a></sup>&nbsp;It is a&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro-drug" class="mw-redirect" title="Pro-drug" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">pro-drug</a>&nbsp;that is converted in the body into&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GS-441524" title="GS-441524" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">GS-441524</a>, a&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribonucleotide" title="Ribonucleotide" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">ribonucleotide</a>&nbsp;analog.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Earlier studies found antiviral activity against several&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_virus" title="RNA virus" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">RNA viruses</a>&nbsp;including&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SARS_coronavirus" class="mw-redirect" title="SARS coronavirus" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">SARS coronavirus</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East_respiratory_syndrome-related_coronavirus" title="Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">MERS coronavirus</a>, but it is not approved for any indication.<sup id="cite_ref-Scavone_2020_1-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#cite_note-Scavone_2020-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[1]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-FDA_EUA_2-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#cite_note-FDA_EUA-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[2]</a></sup>&nbsp;<b>Remdesivir was originally developed to treat&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatitis_C" title="Hepatitis C" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">hepatitis C</a><sup id="cite_ref-Stephens_9-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#cite_note-Stephens-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[9]</a></sup>&nbsp;and was then tested against&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_virus_disease" class="mw-redirect" title="Ebola virus disease" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Ebola virus disease</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marburg_virus_disease" title="Marburg virus disease" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Marburg virus disease</a>, but was ineffective for all of these viral infections</b>.</span><sup id="cite_ref-Scavone_2020_1-2" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#cite_note-Scavone_2020-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[1]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">
</font></p><div id="toc" class="toc" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="mw-toc-heading" style="border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); padding: 7px; display: table;"><input type="checkbox" role="button" id="toctogglecheckbox" class="toctogglecheckbox" style="direction: ltr; position: absolute; opacity: 0; z-index: -1; display: none;" /><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center; direction: ltr;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#Side_effects" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Side effects</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#Research" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Research</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#COVID-19" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">COVID-19</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#Ebola" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2.2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Ebola</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#Access" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Access</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#Pharmacology" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">4</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Pharmacology</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#Activation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">4.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Activation</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#Mechanism_of_action" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">4.2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Mechanism of action</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#Pharmacokinetics" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">4.3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Pharmacokinetics</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#Resistance" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">4.4</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Resistance</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#Interactions" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">5</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Interactions</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-12" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#Synthesis" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">6</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Synthesis</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-13" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#Terminology" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Terminology</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-14" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#Other_animals" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">8</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Other animals</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-15" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">9</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">References</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-16" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#Further_reading" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">10</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Further reading</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-17" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remdesivir#External_links" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">11</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">External links</span></font></a></li></ul></div><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><span class="mw-headline" id="Side_effects"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Side effects...</font></span></h2><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/these-pharmaceutical-companies-are-funding-spread-covid-misinformation-fox" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/these-pharmaceutical-companies-are-funding-spread-covid-misinformation-fox</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><header class="editorial-fullheader" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="dateline--group" style="box-sizing: border-box; align-items: center; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap;"><p class="dateline" style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: 2px; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;<time datetime="2020-04-10T16:07:52-0400" style="box-sizing: border-box;">04/10/20 4:07 PM EDT</time></font></p></div></header><div class="editorial-fullarticle" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 2.25rem;"><div class="field field--name-field-stories-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Many pharmaceutical companies that are conducting ongoing research into COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines are among the top sponsors of the Fox News Channel,&nbsp;</b>a cesspool of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/how-foxs-sean-hannity-has-downplayed-coronavirus-pandemic-america" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">medical misinformation</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-news-coverage-covid-19-pandemic-medically-inaccurate-malevolently-racist" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">racist fearmongering</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-has-promoted-hydroxychloroquine-nearly-300-times-two-week-period" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">reckless speculation</a>&nbsp;that put&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/opinion/coronavirus-fox-news.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">vulnerable populations</a>&nbsp;in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/04/07/the-last-days-of-rosemarie-gabriele-pasco-countys-first-coronavirus-victim/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">harm’s way</a>. These companies, many of which are spending millions to research therapies and donate specialized resources that might alleviate the toll of the virus, are undermining their own work by advertising on Fox News, whose coverage of the pandemic has been&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/msnbc/chris-hayes-fox-news-has-posed-genuine-public-health-threat" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">described</a>&nbsp;as a “genuine public health threat.”&nbsp;</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Here’s a list of these pharmaceutical companies. You can let them know they must stop sponsoring the spread of deadly misinformation during a global pandemic.&nbsp;</font></p><h4 dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><a href="http://twitter.com/gsk" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)</font></a></h4><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">GlaxoSmithKline is a U.K.-based global pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturer&nbsp;and a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/these-are-fox-news-leading-advertisers" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">leading Fox News advertiser</a>.</span>&nbsp;It has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/06/glaxosmithkline-and-vir-aim-to-take-on-covid-19-with-antibodies-and-crispr/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">invested hundreds of millions of dollars</a>&nbsp;into researching COVID-19 therapeutics and has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-52212777" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">partnered with the British government and AstraZeneca</a>&nbsp;to set up a testing facility at the University of Cambridge.&nbsp;</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>The company has run over 3,000 ads on Fox News since January 2019 a</b>nd recently advertised on shows that have misinformed viewers about COVID-19, including&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-friends" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Fox & Friends</a></span>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://twitter.com/existentialfish/status/1241937796165775360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1241937796165775360&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalmemo.com%2Ffox-news-must-control-its-dangerously-wacky-hosts%2F" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton</a></span>.</font></p><h4 dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><a href="http://twitter.com/pfizer" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Pfizer Inc.</font></a></h4><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Pfizer is an American biopharmaceutical company and a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/these-are-fox-news-leading-advertisers" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">top Fox News advertiser</a>.&nbsp;</span>The company has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/09/pfizer-coronavirus-testing-fall/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">spent hundreds of millions of dollars</a>&nbsp;to scale up its manufacturing capacity to fight COVID-19 and is running multiple&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/04/09/us/09reuters-health-coronavirus-pfizer.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">studies</a>&nbsp;into potential therapeutics.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pfizer has run over 2,600 ads on Fox News since January 2019.&nbsp;</font></p><h4 dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><a href="https://twitter.com/Novartis" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Novartis</font></a></h4><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Novartis is a Swiss pharmaceutical manufacturer and a Fox News advertiser. The company makes hydroxychloroquine and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/michael-cohen-donald-trump-novartis-twitter-covid-19-1496291" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">has promised</a>&nbsp;to donate its entire inventory “not already allocated to existing orders and customers” to combat COVID-19.&nbsp;</span>It also recently&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fiercepharma.com/marketing/abbvie-pledges-35-million-covid-19-disaster-relief-urges-other-companies-to-step-up" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">established</a>&nbsp;the COVID-19 Response Fund, pledging “$20 million in grants to support public health initiatives.”</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The company has run nearly 1,900 ads on Fox News since January 2019. In 2020, it has advertised on shows hosted by COVID misinformers such as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-news-anchor-maria-bartiromo-and-sen-tom-cotton-keep-pushing-coronavirus" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Maria Bartiromo</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/laura-ingraham/laura-ingraham-questions-listening-public-health-experts-ending-social-distancing" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Laura Ingraham</a>.</span></b></font></p><h4 dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><a href="http://twitter.com/sanofi" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Sanofi</font></a></h4><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Sanofi is a multinational pharmaceutical company, a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-sanofi-exclusive/exclusive-sanofi-can-produce-millions-of-doses-of-potential-coronavirus-drug-ceo-idUSKBN21K3AD" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">manufacturer of hydroxychloroquine</a>, and&nbsp;a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/these-are-sean-hannitys-leading-advertisers" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">top advertiser</a>&nbsp;on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/how-foxs-sean-hannity-has-downplayed-coronavirus-pandemic-america" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">COVID misinformer Sean Hannity</a>’s prime-time show</b>.</font></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In collaboration with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Sanofi is currently&nbsp;<a href="http://www.news.sanofi.us/2020-03-16-Sanofi-and-Regeneron-begin-global-Kevzara-R-sarilumab-clinical-trial-program-in-patients-with-severe-COVID-19" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">testing</a>&nbsp;a prescription medication designed to treat rheumatoid arthritis among COVID patients in New York with the hope that the drug can alleviate fevers and aid patients with oxygen intake.&nbsp;</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Since January 2019, Sanofi-owned brands have advertised on Fox News over 1,700 times.</b>&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Besides being a top advertiser on&nbsp;</span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); box-sizing: border-box;">Hannity</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, Sanofi has paid for programming on&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-death-projections-are-down-because-social-distancing-which-fox" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: rgb(255, 255, 102); box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">shows that have advocated for the premature end to social distancing guidelines</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, including</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Ingraham Angle</em>&nbsp;</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">and&nbsp;</span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); box-sizing: border-box;">Fox & Friends</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. Previously,&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20170405-usa-media-advertisers-bmw-sanofi-fox-news-bill-o-reilly-factor-sexual-harassment-report" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background: rgb(255, 255, 102); box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Sanofi dropped</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;Bill O’Reilly’s now-defunct prime-time show when he was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women. It remains to be seen if the company will do the same when even more is at stake.</span></font></p><h4 dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><a href="https://twitter.com/vandapharma" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Vanda Pharmaceuticals</font></a></h4><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Vanda Pharmaceuticals is a therapeutics manufacturer based in Washington, D.C. It is&nbsp;<a href="https://vandapharmaceuticalsinc.gcs-web.com/node/14056/pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">currently running a clinical study</a>&nbsp;of potential COVID treatments.&nbsp;The company has run 269 advertisements on Fox News since January 2019, including following&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/peltzmadeline/status/1247707399995232257" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Sean Hannity’s interview with President Donald Trump</a>&nbsp;in which Trump touted “potential cures” for coronavirus that might benefit Prime Minister Boris Johnson.</font></p><h4 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><a href="http://twitter.com/bayer" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Bayer</font></a></h4><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Bayer is a multinational pharmaceutical manufacturer that also manufactures chloroquine phosphate, and it is a top advertiser on&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Hannity</em>&nbsp;and Fox News overall.</span>&nbsp;The company has made&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/bayer-preps-u-s-donation-malaria-med-chloroquine-to-help-covid-19-fight-report" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">multiple</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.media.bayer.com/baynews/baynews.nsf/id/Bayer-supports-fight-against-corona-pandemic-Spain-with-measures-totaling-approximately-EUR-1?" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">pledges</a>&nbsp;to donate resources to fight COVID-19 in the U.S. and Spain. It is also paying for the spread of medical misinformation by advertising on Fox News: the company has&nbsp;run over 3,900 ads since January 2019, including 493 since the beginning of 2020. Brands owned by Bayer that run advertisements on the network include&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/bayeraspirin" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Bayer Aspirin</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/aleve/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Aleve</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/Claritin/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Claritin</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/DrScholls" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Dr. Scholl’s</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/AlkaSeltzer/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Alka-Seltzer</a>, among many others.</font></p><h4 dir="ltr" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><a href="https://twitter.com/GileadSciences" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Gilead Sciences</font></a></h4><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Gilead Sciences is a California-based pharmaceutical research and development company that has a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/06/gilead-remdesivir-data-coming-soon/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">forthcoming study</a>&nbsp;of its drug Remdesivir and whether it has therapeutic properties to treat COVID-19. It has run 269 advertisements on Fox since January 2019. This year, the company advertised on shows hosted by coronavirus misinformers, including Sean Hannity and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-news-jeanine-pirro-downplays-talk-about-coronavirus-being-more-deadly-flu" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Jeanine Pirro</a>.</font></p><h4 dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><a href="http://twitter.com/astrazeneca" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">AstraZeneca</font></a></h4><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>AstraZeneca is a multinational biopharmaceutical company that frequently advertises on Fox News.&nbsp;</b>The company is currently&nbsp;<a href="https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/articles/2020/researching-antibodies-to-target-covid-19.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">researching</a>&nbsp;potential treatments for coronavirus using antibody therapeutics. It has also publicly&nbsp;<a href="https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2020/astrazeneca-to-donate-9-million-face-masks-to-support-healthcare-workers-around-the-world-in-the-fight-against-covid-19.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">committed to donating</a>&nbsp;9 million face masks to health care workers across the world. The company is also a major sponsor of programs spreading COVID-19 misinformation; since January 2019 it has run over 700 advertisements on Fox News, including on&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Fox & Friends</em>, and&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-host-says-america-should-use-power-positive-thinking-beat-coronavirus" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">The Five</a></span>.</font></p><h4 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><a href="https://twitter.com/TakedaPharma" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Takeda</font></a></h4><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Takeda is a global pharmaceutical company and a Fox News advertiser that recently&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/news/takeda-hyperimmune-therapy-covid-19/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">announced</a>&nbsp;it is partnering with plasma companies to develop an antibody therapeutic to treat complications associated with COVID-19.<b>&nbsp;It has advertised on Fox 563 times since January 2019&nbsp;</b>and recently ran ads on&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton</em>, a show that has promoted an approach to COVID-19 that runs afoul of guidance from public health experts.</font></p></div></div></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/we-already-paid-for-covid-19-treatments-we-cannot-let-gilead-make-us-pay-again"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/we-already-paid-for-covid-19-treatments-we-cannot-let-gilead-make-us-pay-again</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We already paid for COVID-19 treatments — we cannot let Gilead make us pay again</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Alex Lawson / Independent Media Institute March 26, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Update, March 25, 2:45 p.m.: Gilead has renounced the benefits of orphan designation, but still retains other patents that give them a five-year monopoly on remdesivir.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There’s much we don’t yet know about COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. We don’t know how long the pandemic will last, when a vaccine will be developed, or how many lives antiviral medications can save. But there’s one thing we know for sure: U.S. taxpayers have already paid for the research and testing of the most promising treatments.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These treatments should be available to everyone who needs them at no cost. But the Trump administration’s drug policy is led by two former pharmaceutical executives, and that is having devastating consequences for potential access to treatments and vaccines for the COVID-19 pandemic.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If you’ve been watching Donald Trump’s daily press briefings, that might come as a surprise. During his 2016 campaign, Trump loved to talk tough on pharma and say he would fight for lower drug prices.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;But then he put Alex Azar, a big pharma CEO infamous for doubling the price of insulin, in charge of regulating health care. Several weeks ago, Azar refused to guarantee that a coronavirus vaccine will be affordable for all, citing the need to protect big pharma’s profits.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Azar is now a member of Trump’s coronavirus task force, and his influence is evident during the briefings. Over and over again, Trump talks up big pharma corporations and thanks them for their work on COVID-19 treatments and a potential vaccine. He refers to them as “great companies” and their executives as “geniuses.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>trump fails to mention that taxpayers have spent nearly $700 million on coronavirus research through the National Institutes of Health (NIH)</b>. Nor does he mention that big pharma corporations spend more money enriching themselves through stock buybacks than they do on research and development.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One medication currently being tested on coronavirus patients is the antiviral remdesivir. It’s still too early to say if remdesivir will prove broadly effective at helping patients with COVID-19. But if it does end up being a major part of treating the disease, it’s essential to remember who paid for the drug’s development: The American people.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Remdesivir was developed with research funded by a $37.5 million NIH grant.</b>&nbsp;The NIH plans to spend at least an additional $30 million on phase II trials of the medication this year. Since we’ve all paid for remdesivir’s development through our taxpayer dollars, it should be available to everyone who needs it at no cost.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Instead, the Trump administration just granted Gilead, a giant pharmaceutical corporation, “orphan” drug status for remdesivir.</b>&nbsp;That means that Gilead is free to charge outrageous prices for the drug, with their government-granted exclusivity ensuring that there will be no competition for years to come.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">What makes this even more outrageous is that orphan status is designed to incentivize research and development of treatments for rare diseases. A pandemic is the opposite of rare!</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We don’t know what role Joe Grogan, Gilead’s former chief lobbyist, and currently the director of Trump’s domestic policy council, played in this decision. But it seems a safe bet that such an outrageous move to profit off a pandemic had to have support from the top.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Nor is remdesivir an outlier. This is how all new medications work.&nbsp;</b>Taxpayers always fund the riskiest and most crucial research and development. Then, pharma gets the patent monopolies and uses them to charge outrageous prices. American families are going bankrupt paying four- and five-figure prices for drugs that their taxpayer dollars already paid to develop!</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Politicians might be tempted by a short-term solution—requiring all COVID-19 treatments, as well as an eventual vaccine, to be low-cost or cost-free. But that doesn’t go far enough. It does nothing to help the Americans with diabetes who are dying every year because they are forced to ration their outrageously priced insulin. It does nothing for seniors, who will soon be spending half their hard-earned Social Security checks on health care costs. And it will do nothing to help patients when the next pandemic comes.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We need permanent structural changes. Fortunately, we know exactly what we need to do, and the American people agree with these changes across partisan lines:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">when a drug corporation is abusing their patent privilege by charging outrageous prices, revoke the privilege and allow generic competition to drive down prices. This policy is supported by 78 percent of all voters and opposed by only 10 percent.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Allow public manufacturing of drugs to alleviate shortages and eliminate bottlenecks. This policy is supported by 70 percent of all voters and opposed by only 17 percent.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Increase taxpayer funding of research and development of vaccines and pharmaceuticals by creating a “full cycle” public R&D program with no patent monopolies and immediate generic production of the results. This policy is supported by 69 percent of voters and opposed by only 15 percent.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump wasn’t prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic, but the public health community has been preparing for years. The research we’ve funded is going to be critical in the coming months. We’ve already paid for it. Let’s demand that Congress change the law so that we don’t have to pay again.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alex Lawson is the executive director of Social Security Works, a non-profit advocacy group that supports expanding benefits to address America’s growing retirement security crisis. Lawson has appeared on numerous TV and radio outlets and is a frequent guest host of The Thom Hartmann Program, one of the top progressive radio shows in the country.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">320</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">
</span></font></div><div><a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/02/29/cronyism-and-conflicts-of-interest-in-trumps-coronavirus-task-force/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://theintercept.com/2020/02/29/cronyism-and-conflicts-of-interest-in-trumps-coronavirus-task-force/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">alex&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.1em; box-shadow: white 0px 1px 0px, rgb(17, 17, 17) 0px 4px 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">AZAR,</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">&nbsp;</span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">the secretary of health and human services, admitted Wednesday that a vaccine for a new coronavirus might not be affordable for all Americans. “We can’t control that price,</span>” Azar</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/27/21155879/alex-azar-coronavirus-vaccine-affordable-insurance" style="letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">told</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">&nbsp;</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., during a congressional hearing about the novel&nbsp;strain, which has been spreading throughout the world and is widely expected to become a serious public health issue in the United States.</span></font></div><div data-reactid="219" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After a wave of criticism from Democrats, Azar&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-vaccine-affordable-says-trump-administration-2020-2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">walked the comment back</a>&nbsp;the next day, saying that he would ensure public access to a vaccine for Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, if one should be developed.<b>&nbsp;But Azar, who served as the top lobbyist for Eli Lilly&nbsp;</b>before becoming president of the drug company’s U.S. operations in 2012 and the secretary of health and human Services in 2018, knows of what he unthinkingly speaks.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/05/24/725404168/at-2-125-million-new-gene-therapy-is-the-most-expensive-drug-ever" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Exorbitant</a>&nbsp;drug pricing often leaves life-saving treatment out of reach for the poorest Americans. And to the extent that Azar and the other businessmen who make up the majority of the president’s coronavirus task force have any experience with pharmaceuticals, one of the&nbsp;<a href="https://fortune.com/2019/03/01/drug-companies-rd-profits/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">most profitable sectors</a>&nbsp;of the economy, it’s been making money off the system that keeps them out of reach.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">In the case of Azar, who earned nearly</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/20/azar-eli-lilly-millions-severance-hhs-251107" style="letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">$2 million</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">&nbsp;</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">during his last year at Lilly, that profit came at the expense of the people who needed the drugs, according to a</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://insulinnation.com/living/price-fixing-alleged-in-lawsuit-against-insulin-makers/" style="letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">lawsuit</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">&nbsp;</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">filed in 2017. While Azar was leading the pharmaceutical giant, the cost of its drugs</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2017-11-13/hhs-secretary-nominee-alex-azar-a-friend-to-health-care-firms" style="letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">went up significantly</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">. In particular, insulin sold by the company more than doubled in price. According to the suit, which also names&nbsp;Novo Nordisk and Sanofi, Eli Lilly engaged in a scheme to artificially inflate the price of its drug, leaving some diabetic people unable to pay the cost and forced to use expired insulin or none at all. Eli Lilly did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the company has told</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/health/drugmakers-lawsuit-insulin-drugs.html" style="letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">other publications</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">&nbsp;</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.01em;">that the suit has no merit and that it follows the “highest ethical standards.”</span></font></p></div><div data-reactid="230" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>For another task force member, the profits could come from the coronavirus itself. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Joseph Grogan was a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences</span> before he joined the Trump administration as director of the Domestic Policy Council and led the&nbsp;<a href="https://democracyforward.org/updates/bts-joseph-grogan-big-pharma/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Drug Pricing and Innovation Work Group</a>.</b>&nbsp;On Wednesday, after <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Gilead announced that it would be starting two clinical trials of an antiviral drug that could be used to treat Covid-19, the company’s stock price&nbsp;<a href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/gilead-moderna-stocks-coronavirus-vaccine-treatment-trials-51582812256" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">surged</a>.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As a former lobbyist for a company that stands to gain big from a possible treatment for the respiratory disease, Grogan’s participation on the task force poses a host of ethical problems, according to Robert Klitzman, professor of psychiatry and director of the bioethics master’s program at Columbia University. “Does he have a conflict of interest? Yes!” said Klitzman, who points out that the government is likely to spend money on both the research and purchase of treatments for the virus. “Gilead could help shape a government request for proposals so that they could have an unfair advantage.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While Grogan appears to have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4388049-Joseph-J-Grogan-Financial-Disclosure.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">sold his Gilead stock</a>&nbsp;and, according to the Office of Management and Budget, has severed all financial relationships and taken “the Trump pledge,” the situation is still problematic, according to Klitzman. “When he gets out of office, they could give him a gift for doing a good job or just hire him again. And what about his buddies? I’m sure he is still close to people who work for Gilead who will benefit. These are all major ethical concerns.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Although Grogan and his friends may have a lot to gain from his participation on the task force, it is not clear what expertise he and most of the others serving on the group bring to it. Of the task force’s 16 members — 17, if you include Vice President Mike Pence, who is heading the effort — only four have any training in science or medicine. The others mostly hail from the business world, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, an investment banker who was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/04/18/sears-lawsuit-eddie-lampert-esl-investments/3507382002/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">sued</a>&nbsp;for asset stripping; Ken Cuccinelli, a lawyer and self-described “opponent of homosexuality” now serving as acting deputy secretary of homeland security; and Christopher Liddell, a former executive at Microsoft and General Motors, who worked with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner on the modernization of federal IT systems before directing the country’s response to what may be the biggest public health crisis in over a century.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Pence also named Larry Kudlow to the task force on Thursday. Kudlow, a top economic adviser to Trump who used to work for Bear Stearns, went on&nbsp;<a href="https://video.foxbusiness.com/v/6136916294001/#sp=show-clips" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Fox Business</a>&nbsp;to reassure the American public that reports of increasing coronavirus infections around the world don’t necessarily mean “that this thing is going to skyrocket in North America.” Kudlow then encouraged everyone to keep investing, saying, “Stocks look pretty cheap to me.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump has fired many of the people who actually know how to coordinate government responses to epidemics. As Laurie Garrett&nbsp;<a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/01/31/coronavirus-china-trump-united-states-public-health-emergency-response/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a>&nbsp;in January, the president shut down the National Security Council’s global health security unit and cut $15 billion in national health spending, including funding for the management of infectious global diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Homeland Security, and HHS. At the CDC, the funding cuts to the global health section were so severe, Garrett wrote, that “the number of countries it was working in was reduced from 49 to merely 10.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While four doctors are on the task force, it’s not clear how much they will be allowed to direct the response to the virus. The White House&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/us/politics/us-coronavirus-pence.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">reportedly</a>&nbsp;told Anthony Fauci, an immunologist who directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and has extensive experience combating infectious diseases, not to speak publicly without clearance after he said at a meeting that the virus “has adapted extremely well to human species.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Thursday, Deborah Birx, a physician who has served as the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator since 2014, was named as the White House coronavirus response coordinator, and Surgeon General Jerome Adams was added to the task force. Their appointments came after&nbsp;<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/485071-sanders-blasts-trump-for-picking-completely-unqualified-pence-for" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Sen. Bernie Sanders</a>&nbsp;slammed Trump for putting “political cronies, not scientists” in charge of the government response to the virus.</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">=</span></font></div><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2020/01/13/ex-pharma-lobbyist-embedded-white-house-tanked-drug-pricing-bill">https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2020/01/13/ex-pharma-lobbyist-embedded-white-house-tanked-drug-pricing-bill</a></font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/05/ocasio-cortez-bathes-in-republican-tears-gop-congressman-triggered-by-attack-on-big-pharma"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2019/05/ocasio-cortez-bathes-in-republican-tears-gop-congressman-triggered-by-attack-on-big-pharma</font></a></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After taking back the House in the November midterms, in large part because of health care, Democrats held their first hearing in January on the rising and often exorbitant cost of prescription drugs. This week, the House majority followed up with a package of legislation aimed at lowering the cost of prescription drugs and reversing the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.</font></p><div class="p1_22" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Essentially, Democrats dared Republicans to vote against lower drug prices because of their longstanding opposition to Obamacare. The gambit worked,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/16/house-drug-pricing-vote-1440843" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">with the trio of bills passing on Thursday with the support of five Republicans</a>.&nbsp;Furthermore, this move made clear that some in the GOP are quicker to cry tears in defense of corporate profits than for the Americans dependent on lifesaving medicine that is many times more expensive in the U.S. than other developed nations.</font></p><div class="p2_22" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="alt_ad_block story-page-in-content-graph-2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing this week, Republicans howled in bitter protest after Democrats dared to question the massive profits claimed by leading pharmaceutical companies while millions can’t afford lifesaving medications.</font></p><div class="p3_22" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Daniel O’Day, the chairman and CEO of Gilead, was grilled by Democratic lawmakers on Thursday. Although Gilead is the leading US manufacturer of HIV drugs, only about 18% of the 1.1 million people in the U.S. at risk for HIV infections are currently taking its prevention drug Truvada. Democrats contended that that means preventable infections are occurring every day because of Gilead’s business model.</font></p><div class="p4_22" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gilead charged $800 a month for Truvada when it was introduced in 2004. It now costs nearly $2000 a month and has earned Gilead about $36 billion since it was approved in 2004.</font></p><div class="p5_22" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“How can Gilead do this?” Oversight Committee chair Elijah Cummings, D-Md., asked O’Day. “This treatment was developed as a result of investment made by the American taxpayers.” Cummings then answered his own question, saying that “the problem is that Gilead, the company that now sells the drug, charges astronomical prices.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) originally filed a patent application for Truvada in 2006, after it discovered the drug’s ability to prevent HIV infection in a federal primate lab in Atlanta.</font></p><div class="p7_22" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“How can our system allow a company to take a drug treatment that was developed with taxpayer funds and abuse its monopoly to charge such astronomical prices?” Cummings pressed O’Day.</font></p><div class="p8_22" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., also piled on O’Day. “You’re the CEO of Gilead. Is it true that Gilead made $3 billion in profits from Truvada in 2018?” she asked.</font></p><div class="p9_22" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The current list price is $2,000 a month in the United States, correct?” she continued. “Why is it $8 in Australia?”</font></p><div class="p10_22" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“There’s no reason this should be $2,000 a month,” Ocasio-Cortez insisted. “People are dying because of it and there’s no enforceable reason for it.”</font></p><div class="p11_22" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">O’Day argued that the astronomical price difference is due to government regulation, not corporate greed.</font></p><div class="p12_22" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Truvada still has patent protection in the United States and in the rest of the world it is generic,” he replied. “It will be generically available in the United States as of September 2020.”</font></p><div class="p13_22" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We the people developed this drug!” Ocasio-Cortez shot back.</font></p><div class="p14_22" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After another freshman Democrat, Rep. Katie Hill of California, questioned the CEO about the company’s revenue, which she quoted at $22 billion in 2018, and the compensation of its highest-ranking executives, including O’Day’s recent $30 million signing bonus, Republicans lost it.</font></p><div class="p15_22" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I just cannot understand why we are spending time sitting here listening to people lecturing companies about making money. I hope you make a lot of money,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said in a two-minute outburst.</font></p><div class="p16_22" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“But to sit here and attack the capitalistic system that produces and distributes medicine that is saving lives around the world? I mean it is just offensive!”</font></p><div class="p17_22" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Roy, a freshman Republican who won election last November by just 3 percentage points, continued with his sour-faced, hand-waving tirade: “I hope you make a lot of money! … How much cash on hand does Apple have? $245 billion. How much has Apple done to go cure health?”</font></p><div class="p18_22" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He was later joined in indignation by the committee’s ranking Republican member Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.</font></p><div class="p19_22" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Rather than applaud Gilead for manufacturing this miracle drug, they wish to demonize the company for making a profit,” said Jordan, who&nbsp;<a href="https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/437585-oversight-republicans-accuse-cummings-of-partisan-drug-pricing" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">complained</a>&nbsp;in April<a href="https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/437585-oversight-republicans-accuse-cummings-of-partisan-drug-pricing" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">&nbsp;in letters</a>&nbsp;to the drug companies that he believed his committee’s investigation was a partisan attempt to influence stock prices. “I fear that my colleagues are using today’s hearing as a platform to strong-arm private companies making breakthrough discoveries, all because they are upset at how markets work. The reality is that while Gilead has made money on this drug there doesn’t seem to be genuine issues with access.”</font></p><div class="p20_22" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Medical experts, however, appear to disagree.</font></p><div class="p21_22" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I believe that the root cause of low access is the high price of the medication,” testified Dr. Robert Grant, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco.</font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...Among the suspect assets owned by Scott and his wife include $3 million in a credit fund for an investment group that owns&nbsp;<a href="https://www.alternet.org/rick-scott-invested-all-aboard-florida-parent-company" style="text-decoration-line: none;">All Aboard Florida</a>, a private rail company that Scott supported as governor while rejecting a federal high-speed rail project along the same corridor.<b> He also has holdings in</b><b>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/rick-scott-gilead-florida-medicaid" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Gilead Sciences</a>, a pharmaceutical manufacturer that overcharged Florida Medicaid for drugs to treat hepatitis C, although state health officials deny that they or Scott had any role in forcing doctors to prescribe Gilead's products to beneficiaries.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scott's financial arrangement has been considered suspect for months. He is also facing a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20180717/scotts-use-of-blind-trust-challenged-as-illegal" style="text-decoration-line: none;">lawsuit</a>&nbsp;that alleges his trust does not comply with financial disclosure laws.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The&nbsp;<em>Times</em>&nbsp;further notes that, with assets between himself and his wife estimated to be worth anywhere from $254-510 million, should he win, "Mr. Scott could well become the richest member of the next Congress. His broad menu of investments might regularly present conflicts that require recusal. He has declined to say whether he would use a blind trust in the Senate, where the rules controlling them are far more stringent."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Florida Senate race is one of the most competitive in the country, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.local10.com/news/elections/early-voting-begins-throughout-south-florida" style="text-decoration-line: none;">early voting</a>&nbsp;has begun with three weeks left until Election Day.</font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When did you become aware of the obscene prices the pharmaceutical industry is charging for drugs? For many it was when a smirking Martin Shkreli, founder of Turing Pharmaceuticals, testified&nbsp;<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/02/04/martin-shkreli-congressional-testimony-turing-pharmaceuticals-valeant-fda-drug-prices/79808004/" style="text-decoration: none;">on the Hill</a>&nbsp;in February about his price hike of the antiparasitic drug Daraprim from $13.50 to $750, after which he called lawmakers “imbeciles” in a tweeted goodbye.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For others it was the roll-out of <b>Gilead Sciences</b> hepatitis C drug Sovaldi in 2014 at $84,000 for a 12-week&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/01/how-an-84000-drug-got-its-price-lets-hold-our-position-whatever-the-headlines/" style="text-decoration: none;">course</a>&nbsp;of treatment.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Let’s hold our position whatever competitors do or whatever the headlines,” a Gilead executive said in an internal email, an impressive commitment to price-gouging in the face of public opprobrium. The Senate Finance Committee, in an understatement,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2016/03/how-an-army-of-pharma-lobbyists-in-dc-have-locked-in-one-of-the-biggest-ripoff-schemes-in-america/" style="text-decoration: none;">said</a>&nbsp;the price did not reflect research and development but a “revenue” push.&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;writer Avik Roy&nbsp;<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2014/06/17/the-sovaldi-tax-gilead-cant-justify-the-price-its-asking-americans-to-pay/#5df01a1a65e1" style="text-decoration: none;">noted</a>&nbsp;the same hepatitis C treatment costs $900 a year in Egypt and that US taxpayers are picking up the tab since most US hepatitis C patients are uninsured, underinsured or imprisoned.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other shocking drug prices include:</font></p><ul style="line-height: 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/19/opinion/joe-nocera-cystic-fibrosis-drug-price.html" style="text-decoration: none;">Kalydeco</a>&nbsp;a drug that treats a rare form of cystic fibrosis in patients ages 6 years and older priced at a $300,000 a year.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Acthar, a drug that treats treat seizures in infants under 2-years-old priced at a $300,000 a year.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kadcyla, a breast cancer drug that costs $94,000 for a year.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Zydelig, a leukemia drug, made by Gilead the (Hep C drug maker) that costs&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thepharmaletter.com/article/nice-yes-for-gilead-s-zydelig-a-new-class-of-drug-for-leukemia" style="text-decoration: none;">$57,755</a>&nbsp;a year.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hetlioz, a drug that treats non-24 sleep disorder—a problem affecting blind people whose circadian&nbsp;rhythm is off—that costs<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-non24-hetlioz-idUSKCN0QG25M20150811" style="text-decoration: none;">&nbsp;$60,000</a>&nbsp;per year.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-a-sleeping-drug-company-increased-prices-300-without-anyone-noticing/" style="text-decoration: none;">Xyrem</a>, a drug that treats narcolepsy for $35,000 per year</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Abilify, a psychiatric drug usually added on to another expensive psychiatric drug, that costs $17, 316 year.</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Praluent, a biologic to lower cholesterol expected to cost over&nbsp;<a href="http://www.fiercepharmamarketing.com/story/sanofi-draws-14600-line-sand-praluent-payer-fight/2015-07-27" style="text-decoration: none;">$14,600</a>&nbsp;a year.</font></li></ul><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There are efforts to stop the apparent pharmaceutical industry profiteering and opportunism like pending state bills to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/27/big-pharmas-profiteers-you-want-us-to-pay-what-for-these-meds/" style="text-decoration: none;">force&nbsp;</a>drug makers to reveal their true costs and allow insurers to refuse payment. The White House is also launching a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2016/03/09/New-Medicare-pay-system-aimed-at-lowering-drug-costs/3431457529930/" style="text-decoration: none;">new Medicare payment system</a>&nbsp;to stop the incentives for a doctor to use a $2,000 drug when a $50 drug would do. Currently, if doctors buy drugs themselves and administer them in the office, Medicare pays them back with a six percent bonus to cover administrative costs. Under the new program, “Doctors who prescribe a lot of newer, more expensive drugs will earn less than they used to,”<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/10/upshot/medicare-tries-an-experiment-to-fight-perverse-incentives.html?r=0" style="text-decoration: none;">&nbsp;notes</a>&nbsp;The New York Times,&nbsp;as will Pharma. The move was immediately&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/10/us/politics/groups-scrutinize-white-house-plan-to-cut-drug-costs-in-medicare.html" style="text-decoration: none;">termed</a>&nbsp;“another troubling example of unelected bureaucrats making decisions behind closed doors,” by Pharma-friendly lawmakers. How&nbsp;dare&nbsp;the government protect our tax dollars?</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now Pharma is fighting back. Its lobbying groups, PhRMA, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, or BIO. have launched a Washington, DC-focused campaign to keep lawmakers from legislating away its profit party.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We Save Lives—Don’t Cut Us Off, Says New Campaign</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Does anyone need to be told medicine saves lives? Does anyone need to be told “life is precious”? Apparently so, because the PhRMA/ BIO campaigns depict about 25 patients whose lives were all saved or lengthened by Pharma medicines. “We’re fighting back,” says PhRMA’s new “Hope to Cures: The Value of Biopharmaceutical Innovation and New Drug Discovery”&nbsp;<a href="http://www.fromhopetocures.org/patients" style="text-decoration: none;">campaign</a>.&nbsp;“You are not average!”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Like “Ask Your Doctor” ads created by the same high budget PR agencies, the videos are full of puppies, sunsets and People Just Like You. We get to meet “Theresa,” diagnosed with thyroid cancer at 57, “Hydeia” suffering from&nbsp;&nbsp;HIV/AIDS at 31, “Charis” suffering from ankylosing spondylitis at 29 and “Henry” suffering from glutaric acidemia Type 1 at the young age of three. In a BIO video, a voice over&nbsp;<a href="http://www.biopharmadive.com/news/new-emotional-bio-ad-highlights-innovation-in-effort-push-back-on-pricing/414043/" style="text-decoration: none;">asks</a>,&nbsp;“how do we place value” on “Another decade with a spouse. A few more years with your best friend. A rich, full life rather than one cut short.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">No one wishes the patients depicted anything but well, but the campaign’s meta-message is that if you question Big Pharma’s high prices, you&nbsp;do.&nbsp;The stories deceptively imply that drug regulation—price controls—would threaten the patients’ lives by jeopardizing “research” which is manipulative and untrue. According to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.citizen.org/publications/publicationredirect.cfm?ID=7065" style="text-decoration: none;">Public Citizen,</a>&nbsp;Pharma’s actual research is one-fifth of what it claims&nbsp;and&nbsp;taxpayers kick in a big portion of it. Most&nbsp;<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/09/pharmaceutical-companies-marketing_n_1760380.html" style="text-decoration: none;">reports</a>&nbsp;say Pharma spends a lot more on marketing than research.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nor are most of Pharma’s drugs even&nbsp;life-saving—a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.medicaldaily.com/25-most-popular-pharmaceuticals-do-high-prices-or-label-uses-turn-orphan-drugs-352676" style="text-decoration: none;">lot more</a>&nbsp;thyroid, cholesterol, ADHD and acid reflux drugs are sold than cancer drugs, their demand whipped up by direct-to-consumer drug ads. (Some widely marketed drugs like&nbsp;<a href="http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm293330.htm" style="text-decoration: none;">statins</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.citizen.org/documents/1964.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;">acid&nbsp;</a><a href="http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/857060" style="text-decoration: none;">reflux&nbsp;</a>meds have life-threatening side effects of their own.) PhRMA’s “Hope to Cures” campaign even claims high-priced meds help the economy by creating jobs, like for “sheet metal workers.” Right.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Parading sick patients in front of the FDA and state officials who decide drug reimbursements is how Pharma has gotten drugs that cost four, five and six digits approved, usually paid for by taxpayers. Co-opted patients (sometimes called Astroturf because they are not really grassroots) “appear before public and consumer panels, contact lawmakers, and provide media outlets a human face to attach to a cause,” writes&nbsp;<a href="http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/8897" style="text-decoration: none;">Melissa Healy</a>&nbsp;of the&nbsp;Los Angeles Times, “when insurers balk at reimbursing patients for new prescription medications.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nowhere in the PhRMA PR campaign are actual costs mentioned like the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/2014/4/Unsustainable-Cancer-Drug-Prices/Page-01" style="text-decoration: none;">12 cancer drugs&nbsp;</a>that cost above $100,000 a year though many do not<a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/health/study-two-thirds-of-new-cancer-drugs-dont-extend-life-b99599343z1-334332891.html" style="text-decoration: none;">&nbsp;clearly</a>&nbsp;even extend life. A year on a cocktail of psychiatric drugs can easily<a href="http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/8897" style="text-decoration: none;">&nbsp;cost</a>&nbsp;$60,000. Instead we hear about rare diseases and rare cancers that presumably would not be cured if lawmakers curtail Big Pharma profits.</font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p class="yiv2480537194headline3" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://act.alternet.org/go/58064?t=5&akid=12813.1076705.lwhHNz" style="text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">The Pharma Drug That Is Bankrupting America</font></a></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; font-style: italic; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jeffrey Sachs,&nbsp;The Huffington Post</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How can Gilead Sciences charge $84,000 for a drug that costs less than $300 to produce?&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://act.alternet.org/go/58064?t=6&akid=12813.1076705.lwhHNz" class="yiv2480537194readmore" style="text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: 0.1em;">READ MORE»</a></font></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">America is the land of breakthrough science -- and health care scams. The two seem to go hand in hand in the case of the new hepatitis C virus (HCV) cure named sofosbuvir, sold under the brand name Sovaldi by the drug company Gilead Sciences. There is no question that Solvadi is a godsend -- a lifesaver for millions of Americans, and perhaps someday for hundreds of millions of people around the world infected by Hepatitis C. Yet Sovaldi is also the poster child of a U.S. health care system that is being bankrupted by greed, lobbying and indefensible policies on drug pricing.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The basic facts are these. In December 2013, the Food and Drug Administration approved Sovaldi, and another formulation, Harvoni, which is sofosbuvir used in combination with another drug. Gilead set the price for a 12-week treatment course of Sovaldi at $84,000, amounting to $1,000 per pill. Gilead set the price of Harvoni at $94,000.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to researchers at Liverpool University, the actual production costs of Sovaldi for the 12-week course is&nbsp;<a href="http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/02/13/cid.ciu012.full" target="_hplink" style="text-decoration: none;">in the range $68-$136</a>. Indeed, generic sofosbuvir is currently being marketed in India at $300 per treatment course, after India refused to grant Gilead a patent for the Indian market. In other words, the U.S. price-cost markup is roughly 1,000-to-1! ....</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">===</font></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>