Defense Secretary, major stock holder and ex-chairman of flu treatment rights holder, sees portfolio value growing.
In July, the Pentagon ordered $58 million worth of the treatment for U.S. troops around the world, and Congress is considering a multi-billion dollar purchase.
NEW YORK (Fortune) - The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people around the globe, but it's proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that's now the most-sought after drug in the world.
Rumsfeld served as Gilead (Research)'s chairman from 1997 until he joined the Bush administration in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial disclosures filed by Rumsfeld.
The forms don't reveal the exact number of shares Rumsfeld owns, but in the past six months fears of a pandemic and the ensuing scramble for Tamiflu have sent Gilead's stock from $35 to $47. That's made the Pentagon chief, already one of the wealthiest members of the Bush cabinet, at least $1 million richer.
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IN AN AREA POPULATED BY OVER 2 BILLION PEOPLE, ONLY 126 PEOPLE HAVE BEEN INFECTED, AND ONLY 64 PEOPLE HAVE DIED. ("Cumulative Number of Confirmed Human Cases of Avian Influenza A/(H5N1) Reported to WHO as of 14 November 2005.")
Hell, in the U.S., there are over 500 aspirin deaths per year. This is not to say aspirin is dangerous, but I want to keep things in perspective.
In 2002, an entire issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA 2002 vol. 287 #21) was devoted to looking at major problems with the relationship between drug companies, physicians, the FDA, and medical journals.
Japan links Tamiflu to 2 teen suicides 64 cases of disorders connected to avian flu treatment
What I'm saying is that ALL medications will have some type of negative side effects in a certain percentage of any population. That's a given. I have a friend who would die if he ate peanuts.
The question I am raising is... Is Avian Flu, based on the number of deaths within the affected areas, the threat it is hyped to be? OR... is this just one more neocon scare tactic to further enrich Rumsfeld and his cronies???
Who Owns the Rights on Tamiflu: Rumsfeld To Profit From Bird Flu Hoax
Bird Flu Epidemic is a Hoax
Rumsfeld To Profit From Avian Flu Hoax
