Tom Price Bought Drug Company Stock On Same Day He Tried To Help Them
Price’s stock broker purchase $90,000 worth of stock in a drug company on the same day that Price intervened to kill a rule that would make the company more profitable.
While he was a member of the House of Representatives, Department of Health and Human Services secretary Tom Price used his official capacity in an attempted to kill a controversial prescription drug rule the same day his broker purchased up to $90,000 of stock in six pharmaceutical companies, ProPublica reports.
It had previously been reported that Price bought stock in six health care companies while he sponsored legislation to benefit those companies. However, the new report reveals that Price made a personal appeal to an official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on the same day he bought the stock.
The revelation raises fresh questions about whether Tom Price violated House ethics rules.
According to the report in ProPublica, “On the same day the stockbroker for then-Georgia Congressman Tom Price bought him up to $90,000 of stock in six pharmaceutical companies last year, Price arranged to call a top U.S. health official, seeking to scuttle a controversial rule that could have hurt the firms’ profits and driven down their share prices, records obtained by ProPublica show.”
Of course, all six companies Price owned shares in were strongly opposed to the rule he was trying to get rid of.
ProPublica noted that “McKesson formally warned investors in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that such a change could hurt share prices. The firms lobbied the government to kill the plan.”
Oh yeah, and at two of the companies Price owned stock, the people who were lobbying the government against the rule used to work for Tom Price.
You can read the full report here.
