Chris Collins, Indicted for Insider Trading, Wrote Bill That Could Help His Company
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BAD LOOK
Chris Collins, Indicted for Insider Trading, Wrote Bill That Could Help His Company
Before getting busted by the FBI, Collins introduced legislation to give Big Pharma more money at the expense of hospitals—including the business at the center of his scandal.
Justin Glawe
08.13.18 5:06 AM ET
Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) remains invested in the company at the center of a scandal that led to his indictment and he recently introduced legislation that could help that company.
Collins was charged last week for allegedly giving nonpublic information on Innate Immunotherapeutics, where he was a board member while also serving in Congress, to his son. Collins learned Innate’s lone drug failed its clinical trial and allegedly told his son before the company announced the devastating news. Collins’s son and other family members then dumped Innate stock before it crashed after the news was public. Collins, his son, and a third defendant have pleaded not guilty. Collins said he would not seek re-election in November.
Collins still holds about 2.6 million shares of Innate, worth some $780,000 as of Monday. As recently as last month, Collins continued to introduce legislation that could help Innate, as he has done for the past several years.
In July, Collins introduced a proposed bill that would remove infusion drugs (administered by needle) from a federal program called 340B that requires the pharmaceutical industry to sell drugs at steep discounts to hospitals serving poor patients. Many infusion drugs are used to treat deadly diseases like cancer and HIV and can costs tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
Innate said in April it is developing a cancer treatment that could become an infusion drug, according to the company’s U.S. patent application for the treatment.
If the treatment becomes an infusion drug and if Collins’ bill becomes law, it would mean millions in additional profits for Innate and other pharmaceutical companies. In 2016, the pharmaceutical industry lost out on $16 million in profits thanks to 340B. Compared to the $450 billion in total 2016 U.S. drug sales, 340B cost the pharmaceutical industry 0.000035% of its revenue that year.
At an Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on July 11, Collins lamented the pharmaceutical industry’s increasing losses thanks to 340B purchases, a program he says is improperly expanding.
Collins’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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https://www.thedailybeast.com/chris-collins-indicted-for-insider-trading-wrote-bill-that-could-help-his-company?ref=home
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