- The Trump administration granted a contract worth up to $812 million to a small Virginia firm to boost the US's production of pharmaceuticals.
- The firm, Phlow, was founded in January and describes itself as a "public benefit pharmaceutical manufacturing company."
- Its CEO, Dr. Eric Edwards, told The Associated Press that Phlow's mission is to make the US's drug supply chain less reliant on other countries — something the Trump administration said has been made more urgent by the coronavirus pandemic.
- According to STAT News, Edwards has a checkered history in the pharmaceutical industry.
- Peter Navarro, the White House trade adviser, told The Wall Street Journal he had bonded with a Phlow board member over his China skepticism after she read his book.
The Trump administration handed a contract worth up to $812 million to a small Virginia firm to boost the US's production of coronavirus drugs and reduce reliance on foreign pharmaceutical supply chains.
The firm, Phlow, was founded in January and describes itself as a "public benefit pharmaceutical manufacturing company." The contract is a huge sum for such a new firm.
The Department of Health and Human Services said on Tuesday that its Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which directs federal money to companies countering public-health threats, was giving the contract to Phlow.
The company aims to manufacture raw ingredients in the US for drugs needed to treat COVID-19 patients, CBS News reported.
According to The New York Times, US companies already produce the same drugs, but they rely on foreign raw ingredients that Phlow aims to source from within the US.
Dr. Eric Edwards, the cofounder and CEO of Phlow, told The Associated Press that many Americans did not know how dependent the US is on foreign manufacturers for its medicines and that Phlow wanted to change that.
"It's amazing how many individuals don't realize how vulnerable our active ingredient supply chain has been," Edwards said.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar echoed Edwards' concern in a statement announcing the contract.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us how health threats or other sources of instability can threaten America's medical supply chains, potentially endangering Americans' health," Azar said.
According to the health-news website STAT News, Edwards has come under scrutiny for his previous ventures.
An earlier company he founded, Kaleo, was the focus of a 2018 Senate investigation after it abruptly increased the price of an opioid-overdose treatment by more than 600%. Kaleo was also criticized by Sen. Chuck Grassley in 2017 for selling an EpiPen rival product for $4,500.
A Phlow representative told Business Insider that as the CEO of Kaleo, Edwards had no say over the company's pricing decisions.
Peter Navarro, President Donald Trump's trade adviser and a noted China critic, told The Wall Street Journal that he was introduced to Edwards in November by a Phlow board member, Rosemary Gibson.
Navarro told The Journal that Gibson had reached out after reading his book "Death By China," which warns of a US overreliance on Chinese pharmaceuticals.
A team dispatched by Navarro to inspect a Phlow partner's manufacturing plant in February came away impressed, and Phlow submitted its proposal to the government in March, according to The Journal.
The initial contract is for $354 million to boost US-based drug supplies over four years. It has the option to be extended to 10 years, for a total of $812 million, which would be one of the largest sums ever awarded by the body.
Phlow's website echoes Trump's "America First" rhetoric about reducing US reliance on foreign manufacturing. "The United States' drug supply chain is broken, becoming dangerously dependent upon Foreign Suppliers for our most essential generic medicines," it says.
“When we have a lot of cases, I don’t look at that as a bad thing,” the president said. “I look at that in a certain respect as being a good thing, because it means our testing is much better. So, if we were testing a million people instead of 14 million people, it would have far few cases, right? So, I view it as a badge of honor. Really, it’s a badge of honor.”
— Donald Trump
— Donald Trump
In a series of tweets, billionaire Mark Cuban called for “trickle up” economics, noting that “No amount of loans to businesses will save them or jobs if their customers aren’t buying.”
His plan calls for $2,000 a month payments, with a twist:
“All 128m households could get a $1k check every 2 weeks for the next 2 months that MUST BE SPENT WITHIN 10 DAYS OF RECEIPT OR IT EXPIRES.”
The expiration date is to ensure that the money is used to increase consumer demand, rather than end up in savings.
Cuban does acknowledge that “There is certainly a lot of risk in this use it or lose it approach. A lot to be considered.”LINK
What can I say? Perhaps, Pence should have done the dishes, hah?
(CNN)President Donald Trump said Monday that he would prefer for government employees to wash Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's dishes if his wife or son was not there to do so.
While the dish-washing assertion was not among those reportedly investigated by the State Department inspector general fired by Trump last week at Pompeo's recommendation, the secretary of state faced dual investigations by the department watchdog into whether he had staffers perform personal chores and whether he looked to circumvent Congress in accelerating an arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
"Look, he's a high quality person, Mike. He's a very high quality, he's a very brilliant guy," Trump told reporters at the White House after he was asked whether he was concerned that Pompeo might have requested the watchdog's ouster to halt the investigations.
"And now I have you telling me about dog walking, washing dishes and, you know what, I'd rather have him on the phone with some world leader than have him wash dishes because maybe his wife isn't there or his kids aren't there, you know," Trump said.
While the President alluded to Pompeo having multiple children, he and his wife have one son.
Steve Linick, the State Department inspector general Trump fired last week, was investigating whether Pompeo made a staffer perform a variety of personal errands, including walking his dog, picking up dry cleaning and making a dinner reservation for him and his wife, a Democratic aide told CNN on Sunday. A senior State Department official previously confirmed to CNN that Pompeo recommended Linick be removed, but they did not know the reasons why.
Pompeo also refused to sit for an interview with Linick's office as part of its probe into the administration's move to bypass Congress and expedite last year's $8 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia by declaring an emergency, a congressional aide told CNN Monday.
Last May, the Trump administration declared an emergency to bypass Congress and expedite billions of dollars in arms sales to various countries -- including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- citing the need to deter what it called "the malign influence" of Iran throughout the Middle East.
Trump said Monday that he didn't "know anything about" investigations into Pompeo, looking to dismiss the probe's gravity in comparing it to the nation's recovery efforts.
"You mean he's under investigation because he had somebody walk his dog from the government?" Trump said of Pompeo. "I don't know, doesn't sound, I don't think it sounds like that important."
The President accused Democrats and the media of being interested in who was walking the dog of "a man supposed to be negotiating war and peace with major, major countries, with weaponry like the world has never seen before," asserting that Pompeo may have made the requests while talking to North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un or Chinese President Xi Jinping.
"Maybe he's busy, and maybe he's negotiating with Kim Jong Un, OK, about nuclear weapons. So that he'd say, 'Please, could you walk my dog? Do you mind walking my dog? I'm talking to Kim Jong Un,' " Trump said. "Or, 'I'm talking to President Xi about paying us for some of the damage they've caused to the world and to us, please walk my dog.' To who, a Secret Service person or somebody, right?"
Trump added, "I don't know, I think this country has a long way to go, they -- the priorities are really screwed up when I read this."
Trump's comments seemed inconsistent with recent diplomatic events. Xi is not Pompeo's counterpart -- Trump would typically be the one to speak with the Chinese President. There haven't been talks with North Korea at even the staff level for months as negotiations have stalled.
When pressed on whether Pompeo tried to subvert Congress' will concerning the Saudi arms deal, Trump replied, "I don't think so. I mean, I think that when somebody pays us a fortune for arms, we should get the deal done, I will tell you that."
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