A lawmaker is opening an investigation into Novartis for paying $1.2 million to President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, in an attempt to gain access to the White House, a disclosure that has prompted widespread criticism of the drug maker.
The company has said it agreed to a one-year contract, beginning in February 2017, with Cohen’s firm, Essential Consultants, in order to create a direct channel to the Trump administration about “health care policy matters.” The arrangement, however, has been widely derided because Cohen is not a lobbyist or an expert in health care matters. And Novartis said it let the contract lapse when it expired.
But in a letter sent Friday to the company, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) suggested the payments may have been linked to a groundbreaking Novartis cancer treatment that was being reviewed last year by the Food and Drug Administration. And he also noted the drug maker was holding talks last year with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services about a unique reimbursement deal for the medication.
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