Avian Flue Vaccine - Please share your opinion
I had been wondering why all the hullabalu fear mongering about the avian flu epidemic... hmmm.... Now we get to the bottom of it....
Rumsfeld to Profit from Avian Flu Vaccine
By Nelson D. Schwartz
Fortune
Monday 31 October 2005
Defense Secretary, ex-chairman of flu treatment rights holder, sees
portfolio value growing.
New York - The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people
around the globe, but it's proving to be very good news for Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in
Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to
Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that's now the most-sought after drug in the world.
Rumsfeld served as Gilead Research's chairman from 1997 until he joined
the Bush administration in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial
disclosures filed by Rumsfeld.
The forms don't reveal the exact number of shares Rumsfeld owns, but in
the past six months fears of a pandemic and the ensuing scramble for Tamiflu have sent Gilead's stock from $35 to $47. That's made the Pentagon chief, already one of the wealthiest members of the Bush cabinet, at least $1 million richer.
Rumsfeld isn't the only political heavyweight benefiting from demand for
Tamiflu, which is manufactured and marketed by Swiss pharma giant Roche. (Gilead receives a royalty from Roche equaling about 10% of sales.) Former Secretary of State George Shultz, who is on Gilead's board, has sold more than $7 million worth of Gilead since the beginning of 2005.
Another board member is the wife of former California Gov. Pete Wilson.
"I don't know of any biotech company that's so politically well-connected," says analyst Andrew McDonald of Think Equity Partners in San Francisco.
What's more, the federal government is emerging as one of the world's
biggest customers for Tamiflu. In July, the Pentagon ordered $58 million
worth of the treatment for US troops around the world, and Congress is
considering a multi-billion dollar purchase. Roche expects 2005 sales for
Tamiflu to be about $1 billion, compared with $258 million in 2004.
Rumsfeld recused himself from any decisions involving Gilead when he
left Gilead and became Secretary of Defense in early 2001. And late last
month, notes a senior Pentagon official, Rumsfeld went even further and had the Pentagon's general counsel issue additional instructions outlining what he could and could not be involved in if there were an avian flu pandemic and the Pentagon had to respond.
As the flu issue heated up early this year, according to the Pentagon
official, Rumsfeld considered unloading his entire Gilead stake and sought
the advice of the Department of Justice, the SEC and the federal Office of
Government Ethics.
Those agencies didn't offer an opinion so Rumsfeld consulted a private securities lawyer, who advised him that it was safer to hold on to the stock and be quite public about his recusal rather than sell and run the risk of being accused of trading on insider information, something Rumsfeld doesn't believe he possesses. So he's keeping his shares for the time being.
Article shared by Margie T., Charlotte, NC
If you would like to comment on this information or with your opinion, please click below to share via comments.
Rumsfeld to Profit from Avian Flu Vaccine
By Nelson D. Schwartz
Fortune
Monday 31 October 2005
Defense Secretary, ex-chairman of flu treatment rights holder, sees
portfolio value growing.
New York - The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people
around the globe, but it's proving to be very good news for Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in
Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to
Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that's now the most-sought after drug in the world.
Rumsfeld served as Gilead Research's chairman from 1997 until he joined
the Bush administration in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial
disclosures filed by Rumsfeld.
The forms don't reveal the exact number of shares Rumsfeld owns, but in
the past six months fears of a pandemic and the ensuing scramble for Tamiflu have sent Gilead's stock from $35 to $47. That's made the Pentagon chief, already one of the wealthiest members of the Bush cabinet, at least $1 million richer.
Rumsfeld isn't the only political heavyweight benefiting from demand for
Tamiflu, which is manufactured and marketed by Swiss pharma giant Roche. (Gilead receives a royalty from Roche equaling about 10% of sales.) Former Secretary of State George Shultz, who is on Gilead's board, has sold more than $7 million worth of Gilead since the beginning of 2005.
Another board member is the wife of former California Gov. Pete Wilson.
"I don't know of any biotech company that's so politically well-connected," says analyst Andrew McDonald of Think Equity Partners in San Francisco.
What's more, the federal government is emerging as one of the world's
biggest customers for Tamiflu. In July, the Pentagon ordered $58 million
worth of the treatment for US troops around the world, and Congress is
considering a multi-billion dollar purchase. Roche expects 2005 sales for
Tamiflu to be about $1 billion, compared with $258 million in 2004.
Rumsfeld recused himself from any decisions involving Gilead when he
left Gilead and became Secretary of Defense in early 2001. And late last
month, notes a senior Pentagon official, Rumsfeld went even further and had the Pentagon's general counsel issue additional instructions outlining what he could and could not be involved in if there were an avian flu pandemic and the Pentagon had to respond.
As the flu issue heated up early this year, according to the Pentagon
official, Rumsfeld considered unloading his entire Gilead stake and sought
the advice of the Department of Justice, the SEC and the federal Office of
Government Ethics.
Those agencies didn't offer an opinion so Rumsfeld consulted a private securities lawyer, who advised him that it was safer to hold on to the stock and be quite public about his recusal rather than sell and run the risk of being accused of trading on insider information, something Rumsfeld doesn't believe he possesses. So he's keeping his shares for the time being.
Article shared by Margie T., Charlotte, NC
If you would like to comment on this information or with your opinion, please click below to share via comments.
posted by Karen Herrmann-DeSantis, Herb Specialist, Natural Health Educator | 2:20 AM
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