Moncef Slaoui, a former Moderna executive who was appointed chief coronavirus vaccine adviser to the Trump administration in May, has been making headlines for several reasons that relate to the word “conflict”.
One, he appears to be contradicting MAGA’s optimistic assertions in recent days that a vaccine could be ready for distribution before the Nov. 3 Election Day.
Two, he is simultaneously being criticized for a potential conflict of interest by being vested in pharmaceutical companies while leading the Trump administration’s coronavirus vaccine effort, Operation Warp Speed.
Slaoui resigned from the board of the vaccine developer Moderna in May and sold his stock in the company after being appointed as a Trump advisor, CNBC reported in May.
However, the administration allowed Slaoui to avoid disclosure of extensive drug company investments that he accumulated as a former top executive at GlaxoSmithKline and as a partner in a large venture capital fund, Medicxi, Washington Post reported on Aug. 25. MAGA did this by designating Slaoui a private, outside contractor. Pharmaceutical pricing activists and congressional Democrats describe the arrangement as an end run around ethics rules for government officials.
Both GlaxoSmithKline and Moderna are working on separate vaccines and were granted up to $2.1 billion and $1.53 billion respectively for development and manufacturing under Operation Warp Speed, an entity of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The program plans to have 300 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine ready for distribution by January 2021, CNBC reported.
Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., who heads a House subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis response, launched an investigation into deals that the U.S. government struck with pharmaceutical companies developing covid-19 vaccines.
“We need for all of these transactions to be out in the open,” Clyburn told CNBC. “People ought to see what is going on and who is doing it.”
The subcommittee investigation also questions Slaoui’s ongoing stake in GSK, where he worked for almost 30 years. He declined to divest from the company, citing it as his retirement funds, according to The New York Times.
“We’re saying maybe nothing is wrong at all, but let the sunshine in, and let’s see exactly what it is,” Clyburn said. “We are going to use the powers that we have to shine light on whatever is taking place, and maybe it’s all on the up and up, but we’ve got a gut feeling that it may not be.”
Slaoui is an “elite scientist” with critical knowledge of vaccine development serving in an advisory capacity as he helps the government find the most promising vaccines, HHS said, according to the Washington Post.
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When he was appointed to co-chair the White House coronavirus vaccine project in May, Slaoui said he would divest approximately $12.4 million worth of stock options.
“He has directed the divestiture of his equity holdings in Moderna and that sale should be effective tomorrow morning,” Caitlin Oakley, an HHS spokeswoman told CNBC on Monday, May 18.
Moderna’s price surged on Monday, May 18.
“The timing was particularly interesting,” Axios reported on Tuesday, May 19. “Representatives for the Department of Health and Human Services told Primack that Slaoui resigned last week and will donate all of the proceeds from Thursday to the time of sale, expected to be tomorrow, to cancer research.”
