Obama’s First FDA Commissioner Profited from Pharma Stock in Office

When The Media Says "Experts" They Mean Paid Corporate Shills (Part 38)

In spite of its revolving door with industry with 10 out of the last 11 commissioners going on to work for Big Pharma in some capacity and the current one coming from lucrative consultant and advisor positions for dozen Pharma corps, the FDA does not allow it’s commissioners to be personally invested in any corporations subject to their regulatory discretionary. However, at least one commissioner seemingly found a work around this prohibition. Obama’s first FDA commissioner, Margaret Hamburg, who served all but one year under the Obama admin, was allowed to retain investments in her husband's Hedge Fund, through an exclusive medallion fund reserved for employees and associates, in several pharma conglomerates. The medallion fund held an average of $1 billion in equity across 10 drug companies during Hamburgs tenure as commissioner. Despite supposedly being directed by algorithmic trading, a 2014 senate investigation into the hedge fund’s tax evasion revealed that the Hedge fund’s employees would tweak it on a weekly basis and received millions in annual payouts from the fund. The co-ceo who divulged this information to the senate committee was none other than Hamburg’s husband Peter Brown. Hamburg was appointed to Alnylam Pharmaceuticals board of directors a couple of years after leaving the FDA.