Report: Price Bought Drug Companies’ Stocks on Same Day He Tried to Help Them

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price reportedly bought $90,000 worth of pharmaceutical stocks on the same day that he tried to defeat a regulation that would’ve driven drug companies’ profits down. These are not the first allegations of conflicts of interest regarding Price’s stock holdings, and his broker has said that he made the purchases without Price’s knowledge. Price was part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers that tried to kill a regulation called the Medicare Part B Drug Payment Model, which “was intended to remove the incentive for doctors to prescribe expensive drugs that don’t necessarily improve patient outcomes,” according to ProPublica. Price was confirmed by the Senate in February to serve as health and human services secretary, despite these apparent conflicts of interest which have been reported by CNN and other outlets.