Rumsfeld's growing stake in Tamiflu

[BuckNaked]

http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/31/news/newsmakers/fortune_rumsfeld/

Rumsfeld's growing stake in Tamiflu
Defense Secretary, ex-chairman of flu treatment rights holder, sees portfolio value growing.
October 31, 2005: 10:55 AM EST
By Nelson D. Schwartz, Fortune senior writer

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.

Rumsfeld isn't the only political heavyweight benefiting from demand for Tamiflu, which is manufactured and marketed by Swiss pharma giant Roche. (Gilead receives a royalty from Roche equaling about 10% of sales.) Former Secretary of State George Shultz, who is on Gilead's board, has sold more than $7 million worth of Gilead since the beginning of 2005.

Another board member is the wife of former California Gov. Pete Wilson.

"I don't know of any biotech company that's so politically well-connected," says analyst Andrew McDonald of Think Equity Partners in San Francisco.

What's more, the federal government is emerging as one of the world's biggest customers for Tamiflu. 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. Roche expects 2005 sales for Tamiflu to be about $1 billion, compared with $258 million in 2004.

Rumsfeld recused himself from any decisions involving Gilead when he left Gilead and became Secretary of Defense in early 2001. And late last month, notes a senior Pentagon official, Rumsfeld went even further and had the Pentagon's general counsel issue additional instructions outlining what he could and could not be involved in if there were an avian flu pandemic and the Pentagon had to respond.

As the flu issue heated up early this year, according to the Pentagon official, Rumsfeld considered unloading his entire Gilead stake and sought the advice of the Department of Justice, the SEC and the federal Office of Government Ethics.

Those agencies didn't offer an opinion so Rumsfeld consulted a private securities lawyer, who advised him that it was safer to hold on to the stock and be quite public about his recusal rather than sell and run the risk of being accused of trading on insider information, something Rumsfeld doesn't believe he possesses. So he's keeping his shares for the time being.

Wow... Amazing how this administration is profiting from world events...

 

[Engineer]

Usual DC politics from ALL parties. All of DC are corporate whores but nobody seems to want to vote them out.

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Former CEO's that are now in DC take care of current CEO's of whose companies they now own stock in. Cycle, rinse and repeat.

 

[Meuge]

Which again highlights the real reasons for Bird Flu fearmongering. It's just a way to suck more money from the public into the pockets of the Bush team and their buddies.

 

[Moonbeam]

Originally posted by: Meuge
Which again highlights the real reasons for Bird Flu fearmongering. It's just a way to suck more money from the public into the pockets of the Bush team and their buddies.

Sadly we have an administration that's for the birds.

 

[Finality]

Originally posted by: Meuge
Which again highlights the real reasons for Bird Flu fearmongering. It's just a way to suck more money from the public into the pockets of the Bush team and their buddies.

You do realize birdflu is actually a credible threat to the worlds health dont you? Spanish flu ring a bell with anyone here?

Its starting to show signs of mutation in Indonesia already.

 

[Meuge]

Originally posted by: Finality

Originally posted by: Meuge
Which again highlights the real reasons for Bird Flu fearmongering. It's just a way to suck more money from the public into the pockets of the Bush team and their buddies.

You do realize birdflu is actually a credible threat to the worlds health dont you? Spanish flu ring a bell with anyone here?

Its starting to show signs of mutation in Indonesia already.

Experts that I've heard speak, and whom I've conversed with personally, don't believe that this specific strain (H5N1) is going to become pandemic.

The threat is certainly not anywhere near the magnitude that the media and the puppets would have you believe. Doesn't stop it from being locally dangerous, and lethal when a person is infected... but it isn't likely to be a global danger.

Furthermore, the antiviral medications Tamiflu and amantidine/rimantidine, are an approach that will never work if H5N1 will actually turn into a pandemic. The speed of its replication and ease of transmission will guarantee that resistant isotypes will emerge almost immediately, and will quickly become dominant.

 

[Wheezer]

I wish I had invested in this stock back when

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Buck_Naked
Wow... Amazing how this administration is profiting from world events...

Even more amazing and sad is how the resident Republicans and 52% that support the Bush Regime support this blatant profiteering.

 

[BuckNaked]

Originally posted by: Meuge

Originally posted by: Finality

Originally posted by: Meuge
Which again highlights the real reasons for Bird Flu fearmongering. It's just a way to suck more money from the public into the pockets of the Bush team and their buddies.

You do realize birdflu is actually a credible threat to the worlds health dont you? Spanish flu ring a bell with anyone here?

Its starting to show signs of mutation in Indonesia already.

Experts that I've heard speak, and whom I've conversed with personally, don't believe that this specific strain (H5N1) is going to become pandemic.

The threat is certainly not anywhere near the magnitude that the media and the puppets would have you believe. Doesn't stop it from being locally dangerous, and lethal when a person is infected... but it isn't likely to be a global danger.

Furthermore, the antiviral medications Tamiflu and amantidine/rimantidine, are an approach that will never work if H5N1 will actually turn into a pandemic. The speed of its replication and ease of transmission will guarantee that resistant isotypes will emerge almost immediately, and will quickly become dominant.

My understanding is that a significant part of the reasoning behind why many experts didn't think this was going to be the next pandemic, was that the virus had remained geographically isolated for the several years it has been watched, and didn't show any signs of spreading.

I think the last 6 months has demonstrated that it is no longer constrained to a limited area, and I think you will begin to see the experts reaccess there views...

I provided a link to the BBC showing an interactive map that showed the spread of the virus worldwide in another thread, and I think its worth looking at again...

Link

Meuge, you are obviously an intelligent person, and I think you should at least look at the changes that have taken place in the past weeks and months, and see if what you have heard in the past is current with ongoing events.

I am not being critical of your thinking, but just trying to show you another opinion.

Dave

ETA: Other things to consider, with regards to events in Indonesia, take into consideration previous bird flu outbreaks, the fact that the virus in considered endemic to a large part of the country, and the Indonesian Government admitting they don't have the resources to deal with it, a largely uneducated population who is at best indifferent, added to the recent earthquake that has dislocated significant numbers and disrupted the already abysmal sanitation infrastucture... To say that this might be worth watching would be putting it mildly, imho...

 

[Meuge]

Originally posted by: Buck_Naked

Originally posted by: Meuge

Originally posted by: Finality

Originally posted by: Meuge
Which again highlights the real reasons for Bird Flu fearmongering. It's just a way to suck more money from the public into the pockets of the Bush team and their buddies.

You do realize birdflu is actually a credible threat to the worlds health dont you? Spanish flu ring a bell with anyone here?

Its starting to show signs of mutation in Indonesia already.

Experts that I've heard speak, and whom I've conversed with personally, don't believe that this specific strain (H5N1) is going to become pandemic.

The threat is certainly not anywhere near the magnitude that the media and the puppets would have you believe. Doesn't stop it from being locally dangerous, and lethal when a person is infected... but it isn't likely to be a global danger.

Furthermore, the antiviral medications Tamiflu and amantidine/rimantidine, are an approach that will never work if H5N1 will actually turn into a pandemic. The speed of its replication and ease of transmission will guarantee that resistant isotypes will emerge almost immediately, and will quickly become dominant.

My understanding is that a significant part of the reasoning behind why many experts didn't think this was going to be the next pandemic, was that the virus had remained geographically isolated for the several years it has been watched, and didn't show any signs of spreading.

I think the last 6 months has demonstrated that it is no longer constrained to a limited area, and I think you will begin to see the experts reaccess there views...

I provided a link to the BBC showing an interactive map that showed the spread of the virus worldwide in another thread, and I think its worth looking at again...

Link

Meuge, you are obviously an intelligent person, and I think you should at least look at the changes that have taken place in the past weeks and months, and see if what you have heard in the past is current with ongoing events.

I am not being critical of your thinking, but just trying to show you another opinion.

Dave

ETA: Other things to consider, with regards to events in Indonesia, take into consideration previous bird flu outbreaks, the fact that the virus in considered endemic to a large part of the country, and the Indonesian Government admitting they don't have the resources to deal with it, a largely uneducated population who is at best indifferent, added to the recent earthquake that has dislocated significant numbers and disrupted the already abysmal sanitation infrastucture... To say that this has caught my attention would be putting it mildly...

My opinion is largely based on material presented at the symposium on avian flu that I attended only a couple of weeks ago, so the information is fairly current.

Furthermore, even if we assume that it IS a threat, the promotion of Tamiflu as some sort of miracle drug is nothing short of quackery. The Chinese have been feeding it to their chickens for almost a year now, and I can almost guarantee that if a strain becomes pandemic, it's going to START already being somewhat resistant... and will undoubtedly progress to full resistance very quickly. With such low ID50 and such ease of transmission, treating influenza with antivirals is simply not feasible. What we need is a vaccine, but there are problems with that. The current H5N1 vaccine really blows, despite billions of dollars shoved into the project. It is barely effective, protecting not much more than 50% of the recepients. Considering that the only way to counteract an easily transmissible virus is with herd immunity (other than isolation), 50% doesn't cut it by any measure. What is needed is a recombinant vaccine, but nobody wants to take the responsibility to make it. You see, isolating the H5N1 RNA fragments is dangerous, because rogue fragments (even in a BL4 lab setting) may cause transformation or antigenic shift of existing flu variants, and actually TRIGGER a pandemic.

 

[BuckNaked]

Just to be clear, nowhere have I ever promoted Tamiflu as a preventative...

My only interest has been recent developments with regards to the spread of the virus itself...

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Ok, I hate to do this, but I have to side with Rummy. Do you have any idea how many physicians and pharmacists are making money on drug stocks? It was a no brainer that the makers of Tamiflu were going to get an increase in stock price. I can do it, you can do it, and I see no reason why a public official should not.

 

[Polish3d]

Originally posted by: Meuge
Which again highlights the real reasons for Bird Flu fearmongering. It's just a way to suck more money from the public into the pockets of the Bush team and their buddies.

You think they're doing all this so Rumsfeld, who could be making more money in his last years of life in the private sector, but is instead serving as SecDef, can make a million bucks he probably won't even spend before he passes away?

WHAT THE FKCK are you people thinking.

 

[Stunt]

Unless Rumsfeld actually caused the stock price increase, this is not news.

I currently own an oil and gas mutual fund, should I not be allowed to own this if I am in public office? Would this make it look like I support oil companies? What if I owned the Canadian Index with 30% oil and gas weight? Hate this administration for the right reasons...not this crap.

 

[FrancesBeansRevenge]

Originally posted by: Frackal

WHAT THE FKCK are you people thinking.

If someone repeatedly and consistently lies to you, covers up/denies their mistakes, and shows shockingly poor judgement does it affect their credibility with you? Could this lead to mistakenly assigning negative motives to this person future actions?

What do you expect when there is ZERO trust in this government among the majority of the population?

I am making no comment on the story... it's likely a non-starter... I'm simply saying we can't be surprised by the suspicions.

 

[SirStev0]

Originally posted by: Finality

Originally posted by: Meuge
Which again highlights the real reasons for Bird Flu fearmongering. It's just a way to suck more money from the public into the pockets of the Bush team and their buddies.

You do realize birdflu is actually a credible threat to the worlds health dont you? Spanish flu ring a bell with anyone here?

Its starting to show signs of mutation in Indonesia already.

you should make sure you know what your talking about before you open your mouth! They are actually two different strands of the flu virus... that is unless you are insinuating that panademics are scary ... then i will have to agree with you...

the spanish flu was unique because it seemed to strike people down in their prime... in there 20's and 30's ... and tended to take out men... This flue is like many others and takes on the elderly, immuno-compromised, and the young.

 

[Polish3d]

Originally posted by: FrancesBeansRevenge

Originally posted by: Frackal

WHAT THE FKCK are you people thinking.

If someone repeatedly and consistently lies to you, covers up/denies their mistakes, and shows shockingly poor judgement does it affect their credibility with you? Could this lead to mistakenly assigning negative motives to this person future actions?

What do you expect when there is ZERO trust in this government among the majority of the population?

I am making no comment on the story... it's likely a non-starter... I'm simply saying we can't be surprised by the suspicions.

It's important to be objective and accurate.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Stunt
Unless Rumsfeld actually caused the stock price increase, this is not news.

I currently own an oil and gas mutual fund, should I not be allowed to own this if I am in public office? Would this make it look like I support oil companies? What if I owned the Canadian Index with 30% oil and gas weight? Hate this administration for the right reasons...not this crap.

Never heard of conflict of interest?

I'm not surprised.

 

[Stunt]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: Stunt
Unless Rumsfeld actually caused the stock price increase, this is not news.

I currently own an oil and gas mutual fund, should I not be allowed to own this if I am in public office? Would this make it look like I support oil companies? What if I owned the Canadian Index with 30% oil and gas weight? Hate this administration for the right reasons...not this crap.

Never heard of conflict of interest?

I'm not surprised.

Where's the conflict of interest?
How did Rumsfeld cause the share price to go up?
This should be good for a laugh...expert Dave is on the case. :laugh:

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Stunt

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: Stunt
Unless Rumsfeld actually caused the stock price increase, this is not news.

I currently own an oil and gas mutual fund, should I not be allowed to own this if I am in public office? Would this make it look like I support oil companies? What if I owned the Canadian Index with 30% oil and gas weight? Hate this administration for the right reasons...not this crap.

Never heard of conflict of interest?

I'm not surprised.

Where's the conflict of interest?
How did Rumsfeld cause the share price to go up?
This should be good for a laugh...expert Dave is on the case. :laugh:

Of course I would expect you to miss the point.

He shouldn't have any interest in the Company to begin with.

 

[Stunt]

So what stocks can he own Dave? I'm sure you can connect the government to a long list of companies...
Until you show...
a) how rummy made the shares go up
b) rummy did something illegal

Please stop making yourself look dumb.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Stunt
So what stocks can he own Dave? I'm sure you can connect the government to a long list of companies...
Until you show...
a) how rummy made the shares go up
b) rummy did something illegal

Please stop making yourself look dumb.

Zero

Once you become a steward for the public you should not have any stocks.

 

[Stunt]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: Stunt
So what stocks can he own Dave? I'm sure you can connect the government to a long list of companies...
Until you show...
a) how rummy made the shares go up
b) rummy did something illegal

Please stop making yourself look dumb.

Zero

Once you become a steward for the public you should not have any stocks.

How is he supposed to retire? Most people hold equities in their retirement funds.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Stunt

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: Stunt
So what stocks can he own Dave? I'm sure you can connect the government to a long list of companies...
Until you show...
a) how rummy made the shares go up
b) rummy did something illegal

Please stop making yourself look dumb.

Zero

Once you become a steward for the public you should not have any stocks.

How is he supposed to retire? Most people hold equities in their retirement funds.

Oh come on, quit acting like your dumb as a rock.

Public Officials are handed a Retirement package beyond what anyone in the private sector could ever imagine.

 

[ebaycj]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: Stunt
So what stocks can he own Dave? I'm sure you can connect the government to a long list of companies...
Until you show...
a) how rummy made the shares go up
b) rummy did something illegal

Please stop making yourself look dumb.

Zero

Once you become a steward for the public you should not have any stocks.

My take on this is similar. Elected / Appointed Federal officials should not be allowed to own any stock at all. They should, however, be allowed to have their investments liquidated into something interest-bearing that is fixed and untouchable for the period when they are in office (and, possibly, up to 4 years afterwards).

Something similar to a fixed-rate 5-year CD at 7% (or whatever rate).


There should be no exceptions whatsoever to this rule. That would help get the politicians out of the pockets of big business, and into serving their constituents.