Coronavirus Subcommittee Seeks Answers on Warp Speed Conflicts of Interests

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis is questioning how vaccines are being chosen for accelerated development under the U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed and calling for details on possible conflicts of interest among those who are making the choices.

In a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar, the subcommittee’s chairman, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), pointed out that Warp Speed’s Chief Adviser Moncef Slaoui reportedly holds $10 million worth of shares in GlaxoSmithKline, which secured a $2.1 billion supply deal with the government for 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine that it is developing in collaboration with Sanofi (DID, Aug. 3).

Clyburn also cited Slaoui’s ties to Moderna, which is on track to receive up to $2.5 billion from the federal government to develop and supply its vaccine candidate mRNA-1273 (DID, Aug. 13). Slaoui resigned from Moderna’s board of directors in May upon being named to oversee Operation Warp Speed.

Slaoui was reportedly hired by Warp Speed through contractor Advanced Decision Vectors, which also hired two former Pfizer executives, William Erhardt and Rachel Harrigan, as consultants. Pfizer last month received a $1.95 billion Operation Warp Speed contract for 100 million doses of the investigational vaccine it is developing with BioNTech (DID, July 23).

Clyburn said the subcommittee is unclear whether other Warp Speed consultants have conflicts of interest since their contracts are reportedly structured to avoid disclosure of potential conflicts. In the letter, Clyburn called for disclosure of conflicts by everyone involved in the initiative and for documentation on how vaccine candidates are being selected for investment.

The subcommittee also sent letters to Slaoui and Advanced Decision Vector’s CEO David Harris.

Read the letters here: www.fdanews.com/08-13-20-Letters.pdf. — Jordan Williams