Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s pick for health secretary, is retaining a financial stake in a major lawsuit against Merck over a widely used vaccine given to young people, according to an ethics agreement announced Wednesday and court documents. This conflict of interest may raise questions for lawmakers as Mr. Kennedy aims to run agencies that regulate the pharmaceutical industry.
the Ethics document He said Mr Kennedy would continue to collect fees for cases in which he referred clients Wiesner Bauma law firm is suing Merck over Gardasil, a vaccine that protects against human papillomavirus, or HPV. The vaccine is given to teenagers To prevent cervical cancer and other cancers Later in life.
The arrangement with Wisner-Baum, which also involves other matters, has earned Mr. Kennedy, one of the country’s harshest vaccine critics, more than $2.5 million in the past two years, according to records provided to federal election officials for his presidential bid and election. The agreement, which was approved by the Office of Government Ethics as part of the confirmation process. That amount is significantly higher than about $200,000, the most recent salary figure for the Secretary of Health and Human Services, according to a former agency spokesman.
“I am entitled to 10 percent of the fees awarded in emergency fee cases referred to the company,” Mr. Kennedy said in the ethics filing. He wrote that he is not a lawyer in any of the cases.
The agreement stipulates that Mr. Kennedy may retain a contingency fee interest in cases that the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Ethics determines do not involve the federal government. It will drop its interest in cases where this happens, such as those provided through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
Mr. Kennedy has criticized what he sees as corruption and conflicts of interest in government and the pharmaceutical industry. He has vowed to root out what he calls “regulatory capture” — the close ties between industry and government, especially drug companies and the Food and Drug Administration.
The ethics filings clear the way for the Senate Health Committee and Finance Committee to schedule confirmation hearings for Mr. Kennedy. After their release, Senator Michael D. Crapo, a Republican from Idaho and chairman of the Finance Committee, will hold a hearing for Mr. Kennedy next Wednesday.
But revealing this information could also complicate Mr. Kennedy’s chances. Two influential Republicans, Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, have expressed concerns about Kennedy’s views on vaccines. Mr. McConnell is a former Republican leader. Mr. Cassidy, MD, is Chairman of the Health Committee.
One of the Democrats on the Finance Committee, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, said Mr. Kennedy’s finances showed “an outrageous conflict of interest that endangers public health.”
“This revelation shows that RFK Jr. made millions of dollars by promoting dangerous anti-vaccine conspiracies,” she said in a statement. “Worse still, if he is confirmed, his finances will remain tied to the outcomes of anti-vaccine lawsuits — even as he is tasked with regulating them as health secretary.”
Two ethics experts who reviewed the agreement said his stake in the lawsuits appeared highly problematic, since the Food and Drug Administration, which approves drugs and vaccines, falls under Mr. Kennedy’s purview as health secretary. Any action Kennedy took regarding Merck, one of the world’s largest drugmakers, might appear to be driven by his financial interest in reaching a good settlement, experts said.
“I think he’s going to have to withdraw a huge amount so he doesn’t look like he’s taking money from Merck,” said Richard W. Painter, a University of Minnesota law professor and former chief White House ethics lawyer. “It almost sounds like blackmail.”
A spokeswoman for Mr. Kennedy declined to comment.
The first of many lawsuits alleging that young people have been harmed by the HPV vaccine is on trial in Los Angeles Superior Court. Mr Kennedy used social media to promote the allegations. In 2022 He posted a video To recruit additional prosecutors. Merck said these allegations were baseless.
Wiesner-Baum paid Mr. Kennedy about $856,000 in 2024 and $1.6 million the year before, financial records filed with the government show. It was not clear from the records how much of this money came from cases related to Merck. Mr. Kennedy has also worked with Wiesner Baum on other litigation, including cases involving herbicides.
Agreements like the one proposed by Mr. Kennedy and signed by the Office of Government Ethics are based on criminal laws that bar federal officials from self-dealing and regulations that protect against the appearance of conflicts of interest.
Wisner Baum is not the only law firm to have received client referrals from Mr. Kennedy. He had a similar arrangement with Morgan & Morgan, which advertises itself as “America’s largest injury law firm.”
Company Recently filed a lawsuit some of the nation’s largest food manufacturers, accusing them of using “cigarette playbooks to fill our food environment with addictive substances aggressively marketed to children and minorities” — language that echoes Mr. Kennedy’s attack on ultra-processed foods.
Mr. Kennedy does not appear to be involved in that lawsuit, and he said in the ethics agreement that he would terminate that referral agreement upon confirmation. He also pledged, if confirmed, to end his consulting agreement with his book publisher, Skyhorse Publishing, and divest his interests in a number of companies, including Apple, Amazon and two biotech companies, CRISPR Therapeutics and Dragonfly Therapeutics.
Painter, the ethics expert, said the document outlining Mr. Kennedy’s obligations was not clear about the degree to which he would need to avoid matters related to Merck or the Gardasil vaccine.
Mr. Painter said he believed senators should refuse to confirm Mr. Kennedy until the matter was resolved.
Virginia Kanter, senior counsel for the watchdog group Advocates for Government Democracy and a former government ethics lawyer, also reviewed the ethics statement and said that Mr. Kennedy did not appear to be insulated from Merck’s business unless there was a subsequent decision by the ethics agency. Officials. Merck manufactures a number of vaccines in addition to Keytruda, the blockbuster cancer drug.
Ms. Kanter said the ethical guidelines include a rule of impartiality that prompts officials to consider the appearance of bias in their actions. Given the potential profit Mr. Kennedy might make, “how could he be impartial?” I asked.
The Gardasil lawsuits that Mr. Kennedy worked on allege that young men developed postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, known as POTS, and premature ovarian failure as side effects of the vaccine.
Mr. Kennedy was a pioneer in organizing large law firms to participate in Gardasil cases, according to A.J Reuters report. The cases also allege that Merck’s early studies of the vaccine “were designed in a way to obscure and conceal the identification of serious infections, including late-onset infections,” court records show.
Robert Josephson, a spokesman for Merck, noted: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website The agency says it “has not identified any safety concerns related to POTS following HPV vaccination.”
“A tremendous body of scientific evidence, including more than 20 years of research and development, continues to support the safety and efficacy profile of our HPV vaccines,” Mr. Josephson said.
Study conducted in Scotland Found it It was found that teens who got the HPV vaccine before they were 14 years old did not develop cervical cancer as much as adults in their late 20s to mid-30s. In 15 to 17 cases expected in the group.
Mr. Kennedy is likely to face a flurry of questions from lawmakers during his confirmation hearings, including about his opposition to vaccines, which include Petition to revoke consent Of all the Covid shots during the deadly phase of the pandemic.
He faced opposition from abortion opponents who emphasized his permanent affiliation with the Democratic Party. He has also made a surprising number of claims over the years, including that The polio vaccine was more deadly than the disease.
Susan Craig Contributed to reports.
