Big Pharma sent massive payments to NIH during COVID-19 pandemic, watchdog finds

WASHINGTON (TND) — Scientists and Doctors who worked for the federal government received hundreds of millions of dollars from big Pharma during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The watchdog group Open the Books filed two federal lawsuits to uncover the details of who received the money and who paid the money.

Open the Books CEO Adam Andrzejewski joined The National Desk’s Jan Jeffcoat to discuss the issue.

“These have been very successful federal lawsuits with our legal partner Judicial Watch. For example, during the pandemic, we got the feeling that big government was very close to big Pharma,” he said. “The third-party royalty database shows just how close they are. There are 3,000 companies since 2010 that paid 2,600 scientists over at the NIH 64,000 payments.”

The report from Open the Books reveals hundreds of millions paid in third-party royalties to government scientists with close attention to those payments and transactions during the COVID pandemic.

Senator Rand Paul introduced the Royalty Transparency Act of 2024 which is legislation that would open the books on the flow of third-party royalty payments.

“We now know that since 2010, $650 million of these payments flowed, enriching the agency and its scientists, and we need to be able to follow the money. So the only thing that we don't know right now is the payment to the individual scientists,” Andrzejewski said. “That's why our federal litigation which continues is so important. Rand Paul's bill is so important to break open that transparency.”