Three liberal senators are demanding Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. provide details of meetings he reportedly attended at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida with executives from the pharmaceutical industry.
Trump reportedly played host to the CEOs of Pfizer and Eli Lilly, and the lobbying group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, for a dinner at Mar-a-Lago in December that Kennedy, a longtime critic of Big Pharma, attended. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that since winning a second term, Trump has held more than 50 fundraising meetings at Mar-a-Lago with business executives, and that Kennedy attended several of the meetings.
In a letter dated Monday, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wrote to Kennedy that he owes "the American public an explanation for why you took part in PhRMA's influence-peddling events with President Trump, what happened at these meetings, and whether they will affect your commitment to ensuring that Americans receive the relief they deserve from high drug prices."
Democrats are concerned that the Trump administration will rescind Medicare price negotiations – in which the federal government negotiates directly with drug companies – and patent reforms laid out by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a division of HHS, signaled in January that Medicare drug price negotiations would be reexamined to add greater transparency and possibly other reforms.
"It is unclear why you attended private dinners with Big Pharma executives at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago club following your promises to 'clean up corruption' and 'stop the revolving door between industry and government,'" the senators wrote. "Although the reports suggest that you 'largely stayed quiet as Trump and others talked,' the dinners may have served as an opportunity for Big Pharma to gain insider access to both you and President Trump.
"Big Pharma stands to profit immensely from a second Trump Administration, especially if they can convince you and President Trump to abandon policies like Medicare drug price negotiations and patent reform that would save Americans hundreds of billions of dollars on lifesaving drugs. Indeed, the executives that attended these dinners have called on him to 'pause drug negotiations' – negotiations that are expected to save taxpayers $100 billion by 2032."
The senators asked for specific dates of the meetings and whether the pharmaceutical executives sought commitments on drug pricing and patent policies. They also asked Kennedy to disclose the amount of money that industry executives paid to attend the dinners at Mar-a-Lago.
Newsmax reached out to HHS for comment.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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