Accountable Pharma (formerly known as Patients Over Pharma) is a seemingly defunct project of Accountable.US, which is itself a project of the left-of-center Sixteen Thirty Fund, a funding and fiscal sponsorship organization for left-of-center lobbying and electoral advocacy projects managed by the Washington, D.C.-based consultancy Arabella Advisors, that was used to attack the Trump administration on healthcare issues. The project made allegations of corruption in the Trump administration with regards to health care policy.
Founding and History
Patients Over Pharma Action was launched on January 10, 2020 by then-Accountable.US president Kyle Herrig with the goal of lobbying for the passage of Democratic-backed legislation on drug prices. The legislation passed the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, but was not brought up for a vote in the Senate. 1
The project was eventually renamed Accountable Pharma and alleged that there was deep corruption between the Trump administration and the pharmaceutical industry. 2 The project no longer seems to be active and its last post is dated December 21, 2020. 3
Finances
Because Accountable Pharma is not actually an independent legal entity, but rather a project of Accountable.US, which is itself a project of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the financial information about the project is not available.
Priority Issues and Activism
Accountable Pharma produced attack adds alleging that Trump facilitated a loan to launch Kodak Pharmaceuticals because the company had previously advertised on his television show, “The Apprentice” and that Operation Warp Speed, the project to support the project to expeditiously create and test a vaccine for COVID-19, was being run by pharmaceutical industry insiders who were benefitting from lax oversight and a lack of transparency. 4 The group has also cast allegations of insider trading by Pfizer executives. 5
In October of 2020, Accountable Pharma released a report claiming that President Trump had been politicizing and pressuring public health officials to approve a COVID-19 vaccine and cast doubt on the safety of any vaccine. The report, released on October 20, stated that it is not true that a vaccine was imminent (in fact the Pfizer vaccine was approved for emergency use on December 11, less than two months after the report was released6) and expressed worry that President Trump would put pressure on health officials to grant approval to a vaccine even if it wasn’t demonstrated to be safe. The report also contained numerous allegations that the Trump administration was firing officials who disagreed with him and claimed that the emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine was only done under pressure. 7
In another report released in mid-October of 2020, the project alleged that then-Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barret was in the pocket of pharmaceutical companies and accused the various right-of-center organizations that were supporting her nomination of doing so as a result of donations those organizations had received from the pharmaceutical industry. 8
In the wake of the 2020 election, Accountable Pharma released a statement alleging that Trump’s threats to fire Anthony Fauci, the controversial National Institutes of Health bureaucrat who became the face of restrictive lockdown measuers, could only be the result of political motivation or revenge for his role in allegedly contradicting what the project called politically motivated claims about the virus. 9
References
- “With Drug Pricing Bill Blocked by Senate and White House, Watchdog Group Launches ‘Patients Over Pharma’ Campaign.” Accountable.US, January 10, 2020. Accessed July 26, 2021. https://www.accountable.us/news/with-drug-pricing-bill-blocked-by-senate-and-white-house-watchdog-group-launches-patients-over-pharma-campaign/.
- Accountable.US. “Patients Over Pharma.” Accountable.US. Accessed July 26, 2021. https://www.accountable.us/pharma/.
- “Accountable Pharma Search.” Accountable.US. Accessed July 26, 2021. https://www.accountable.us/search/accountable pharma/.
- Accountable.US. “Patients Over Pharma.” Accountable.US. Accessed July 26, 2021. https://www.accountable.us/pharma/.
- “Accountable Pharma Calls for SEC Investigation Into Pfizer CEO Stock Dump; ‘Appears To Be Another Example of a Shameless Pump-and-Dump and Egregious Pandemic Profiteering.’” Accountable.US, November 13, 2020. https://www.accountable.us/news/accountable-pharma-calls-for-sec-investigation-into-pfizer-ceo-stock-dump-appears-to-be-another-example-of-a-shameless-pump-and-dump-and-egregious-pandemic-profiteering/.
- Commissioner, Office of the. “Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine.” FDA, July 23, 2021. https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine.
- “President Trump’s 9-Month Campaign to Politicize COVID Science & Pressure Public Health Officials.” Accountable.US, October 20, 2020. Accessed July 26, 2021. https://www.accountable.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Timeline-Of-Trump-Admin-Pressure-Politicization.pdf.
- “NEW RESEARCH: PhRMA-Funded Groups Are Boosting Amy Coney Barrett’s SCOTUS Nomination.” Accountable.US, October 14, 2020. Accessed July 26, 2021. https://www.accountable.us/news/new-research-phrma-funded-groups-are-boosting-amy-coney-barretts-scotus-nomination/.
- “Trump Threatens to Fire Dr. Fauci And Public Health Experts.” Accountable.US, November 11, 2020. Accessed July 26, 2021. https://www.accountable.us/news/watchdog-group-calls-for-outgoing-trump-administration-to-back-down-from-threats-to-fire-dr-fauci-other-public-health-experts/.