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CV NEWS FEED // An explosive new report shows that President Biden’s pick to head the National Institutes of Health (NIH) received hundreds of millions of dollars from massive pharmaceutical and biotech companies, including Pfizer, Inc.
Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, a self-professed Catholic, is the current director of the National Cancer Institute, a former Harvard professor, and renowned surgeon.
“Despite there being deep and bipartisan concern about the role that big pharmaceutical companies play in the delivery of healthcare in America, the United States Senate is being asked to place someone with close, long-standing, and lucrative ties to the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies to lead one of the most important health care agencies in the country,” the American Accountability Foundation (AAF) stated in a July 5 memo obtained by CatholicVote.
Bertagnolli’s controversial ties to Big Pharma include:
- receiving over $350M in funding from pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer Inc. and Seagen Inc.
- receiving a personal salary and benefits package approaching two million dollars.
- parlaying her relationship with Big Pharma into hundreds of thousands of dollars in director fees and stock options at biotech companies.
Ties to Eugenic Prenatal Tests
In addition, Bertagnolli also served as an independent director at a diagnostics company that specialized in prenatal tests, which the New York Times exposed as having an 85% failure rate. Prenatal tests are often used eugenically, to abort children with supposed diagnoses of Down Syndrome and other “undesirable” conditions.
“These are tests that too many parents rely on to abort what they believe is a ‘handicapped child’,” CatholicVote’s Tom McClusky stated.
The Catholic Church strongly condemns the selective murder of unborn children with disabilities. Pope Francis condemned the practice, saying that when “doctors” perform such abortions, “They do the same as the Nazis to maintain the purity of the race, but with white gloves.”
Sanders Objects
President Biden nominated Bertagnolli in May of this year, and many expected the Democratic Senate to confirm her quickly. The process has been stalled by Senator Bernie Sanders, D-VT, who continues to block the nomination over what he sees as the Biden administration’s reluctance to lower prescription drug costs by executive fiat.
“Sanders is the chair of the health committee charged with scheduling the confirmation hearing … for Monica Bertagnolli, has said he will not schedule the hearing until the Biden administration promises more drug pricing reform,” news agency STAT reported.
Sanders’ demands include reinstating a ‘reasonable pricing’ clause, or a requirement that when the agency shares research with pharmaceutical companies, they have to sell the subsequent drug or vaccine at a price showing the ‘reasonable relationship’ between its cost, taxpayer investment, and public need.
Bertagnolli’s established views on the matter show that he is right to be concerned. During the COVID 19 pandemic, she refused to endorse Sanders-level price cuts to some cancer treatments.
No End in Sight
This standoff – referred to by some as the “White House vs. Drug Pricing” – does not seem to be coming to a close anytime soon.
“The longer this drags out, the harder it is to do and also the more embarrassing it is for the administration,” said Joe Allen, executive director of the Bayh-Dole Coalition. “If you can’t get your nominee through a Democratic-controlled Senate, it makes people think, ‘Well, what the world is going on up there?’”
The NIH falls under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and operates as the nation’s medical research agency. NIHThis department has been without a permanent director since December of 2021, when Dr. Francis Collins retired after a controversial tenure overseeing the COVID-19 response.
