6/28/2017

CABINET/HHS/TRUMP PEOPLE/TOM PRICE: “Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s appointment to be a cabinet secretary inadvertently saved him a big stock market loss, while as many as five members of congress may not have been so lucky.
When Dr. Price was appointed to run HHS, he said he would sell 461,238 shares in an Australian biomedical company to avoid any possible future conflicts of interest, in case the firm’s primary drug came to the U.S. market.
On Tuesday [6-27-17], the company, Innate Immunotherapeutics , announced a clinical trial for a multiple sclerosis drug had apparently failed, sending the stock tumbling 92%. If Dr. Price had sold the stock after Tuesday’s decline, his shares would have been worth $22,601, registering a loss on an initial $94,000 investment.
Instead, Dr. Price, a former Republican congressman from Georgia, in February sold the Innate Immunotherapeutics shares for about $320,000, earning at least $225,000, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal of his disclosures to Congress and an ethics disclosure report in April.
Dr. Price’s spokeswoman didn’t respond to a request for comment.”

-James V. Grimaldi, “Secretary Price Exits Before Stock Plunge, But Some GOP Lawmakers Face Potential Losses,” The Wall Street Journal online, June 28, 2017 05:30am