Rand Paul and Fauci clash over NIH royalties: 'We are going to learn about it'
WASHINGTON (TND) — Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, and Dr. Anthony Fauci clashed during a Wednesday Senate hearing over royalty payments to government scientists from pharmaceutical companies.
"We've been asking you and you refuse to answer whether anybody on the vaccine committees gets royalties from the pharmaceutical companies. I asked you last time and what was your response? 'We don't have to tell you,'" Paul said. "When we get in charge, we're gonna change the rules and you will have to divulge where you get your royalties from, from what companies and if anybody on the committee has a conflict of interest, we are going to learn about it. I promise you that."
Paul previously challenged Fauci during a June Senate hearing over the alleged lack of transparency from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where Fauci has worked for roughly 40 years, surrounding the royalty payments.
Rand Paul's questioning Dr. Fauci's NIH royalty payments is right
June 20, 2022
Over the past two years, the National Institutes of Health has come under nearly unprecedented scrutiny as it has attempted to guide Americans through the pandemic with treatment and prevention guidelines and recommendations. Despite the public's increased desire to understand how public health decisions are made, NIH has remained stubbornly opaque. Sen. Rand Paul is doing the right thing in attempting to change that, at least when it comes to understanding the financial stakes involved in much of NIH's work.
The institute and its dozens of sub-agencies dole out roughly 32 billion worth of tax dollars annually in the form of research grants to pharmaceutical companies and the healthcare community, but they also receive a hidden stream of private royalty payments for their innovations.
The institute and roughly 1,800 of its scientists have received an estimated $350-$400 million in these payments, from entities like pharmaceutical companies, during the last decade. The public would have remained in the dark about this, but OpenTheBooks.com sued for the information after NIH ignored and denied lawful open records requests. Despite being forced to release the information, NIH is still redacting the amount of each individual payment, and which company paid it. Each royalty check is a potential conflict of interest left unexamined.
Substack Investigation: Fauci's Royalties And The $350 Million Royalty Payment Stream HIDDEN By NIH
May 16, 2022
Last year, the National Institutes of Health – Anthony Fauci's employer – doled out $30 billion in government grants to roughly 56,000 recipients. That largess of taxpayer money buys a lot of favor and clout within the scientific, research, and healthcare industries.
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