Former FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn joins Moderna 6-months after approving their 'vaccine'

Revolving doors are much more pervasive than you think

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Fierce Pharma with important news

Stephen Hahn, Former FDA Commissioner was the subject of an article in Fierce Pharma, dated June 14, 2021:

He authorized Moderna's vaccine 6 months ago. Now, ex-FDA chief Hahn joins biotech's backer

“Under Hahn's watch, the FDA granted emergency use authorization to the company's COVID-19 vaccine just behind a similar OK for Pfizer and BioNTech's jab. Tens of millions of Americans have now received a Moderna shot…

…Hahn also follows the precedent of Scott Gottlieb, M.D., who ran the FDA from May 2017 to April 2019. Less than three months after leaving, he joined the board of Pfizer after partnering with VC firm New Enterprise Associates and think tank American Enterprise Institute, all of which went against Trump's pledge to “drain the swamp."

This is NOT OK

If anyone is in doubt—THIS IS NOT OK.

While this continues, consumer safety in the US will always be a game of chance. So long as FDA has divided loyalties between the companies selling drugs, and the patients that use them, lives are at risk.

Also, if you believe that revolving doors are limited to the most senior positions at FDA, think on. We learn again from Fierce Pharma, in an article dated July 1, 2024:

Departing FDA staffers told they can still influence the agency in Big Pharma jobs: BMJ report

“Under federal law, former FDA employees are prohibited from engaging in certain lobbying activities—but an investigation published in the BMJ medical journal on Monday (Published 01 July 2024) claims that the agency’s staffers are often advised of loopholes in those regulations on their way out the door.”

This is how the BMJ article begins:

Revolving door: You are free to influence us “behind the scenes,” FDA tells staff leaving for industry jobs

“Internal emails show that the US Food and Drug Administration informs employees leaving for industry jobs that, despite restrictions on post-employment lobbying, they are still permitted to influence the agency. Peter Doshi reports

During his final three years at the US Food and Drug Administration the physician scientist Doran Fink’s work focused on reviewing covid-19 vaccines. But a decade after joining the agency Fink had accepted a job with Moderna, the covid vaccine manufacturer, and was undergoing mandatory FDA exit requirements. As he left for the private sector, the FDA’s ethics programme staff emailed him guidelines on post-employment restrictions, “tailored to your situation.”

The email, obtained by The BMJ under a freedom of information request, explained that, although US law prohibits a variety of types of lobbying contact,1 “they do not prohibit the former employee from other activities, including working ‘behind the scenes.’”

What does ‘working behind the scenes’ mean?

The BMJ article continues:

“Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, DC, and former associate commissioner at the FDA, suspects that in providing employees with advice on behind-the-scenes work the FDA ethics staff were simply carrying out their proper function. “It seems to me that the job of the ethics office is to interpret the law for the outgoing person, and that is what they are doing,” he says.

But Lurie expressed concern over the perils of allowing behind-the-scenes work. “It does seem contrary to the public interest that an ex-official would be quarterbacking activities behind the scenes, especially for a ‘particular matter’ on which they had worked. As a practical matter, this policy likely plays out in a way that advances the interests of big pharma, as that’s where many officials head after FDA.”

I will leave subscribers to digest the implications of what is happening here. Effectively, staff are leaving the FDA and using their inside knowledge for the benefit of big pharma companies under intense investor pressure to make blockbuster profits.