"There's no reason to hide what's in those agreements at all. "We don't know the rewards or the incentives that the companies are getting, which might drive some companies to take additional risk or maybe do things inappropriately," Bright said in an October interview. Rick Bright, the former head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which awarded huge contracts for vaccines and therapeutics to Johnson & Johnson and other pharma giants.īright-who said his removal last April was retaliation for his criticism of the White House's pandemic response-alleged in the complaint that he faced pressure from higher-ups at Trump's HHS to "ignore expert recommendations and instead to award lucrative contracts based on political connections and cronyism." "ATI then awarded contracts to companies working on Covid-19 vaccines."įurther fueling concerns over the Trump administration's handling of the contracting process was a whistleblower complaint filed last May by Dr. "Instead of entering into contracts directly with vaccine makers, more than $6 billion in Operation Warp Speed funding has been routed through a defense contract management firm called Advanced Technologies International, Inc.," NPR noted. "It is imperative that they also receive a stake in the outcome as well as complete transparency on how billions of tax dollars have been spent and what terms were agreed to and may still be renegotiated."Īs NPR reported in September, the Trump administration worked to dodge the "regulatory oversight and transparency of traditional federal contracting mechanisms" by issuing massive vaccine contracts to Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and other major drugmakers "through a nongovernment intermediary." "Taxpayers are serving as the angel investors in Covid-19 vaccine and therapeutic development, assuming the costs and risk," the letter reads. "Taxpayers should know how their funds were spent and what secret deals were reached." -Rep. In a letter (pdf) to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, 50 lawmakers from the House and Senate argue that public knowledge of the specific terms of the vaccine contracts "has become all the more important as manufacturers talk of boosters and seasonal immunizations, while considering 'post-pandemic' price increases." Bernie Sanders on Monday urged top Biden officials to release unredacted copies of multi-billion-dollar coronavirus vaccine contracts that the Trump administration negotiated in secret with major pharmaceutical companies last year-and refused to divulge to lawmakers. Dozens of congressional Democrats and Sen.
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