WASHINGTON (AP) - Facing intense scrutiny from senators over his potential profit from vaccine lawsuits while serving as the nation’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that if he is confirmed he will not collect fees from litigation against the drugmakers of a cervical cancer vaccine.
RFK Jr. says he’ll stop collecting fees from HPV vaccine lawsuit, but other ethics questions remain
WASHINGTON (AP) - Facing intense scrutiny from senators over his potential profit from vaccine lawsuits while serving as the nation’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that if he is confirmed he will not collect fees from litigation against the drugmakers of a cervical cancer vaccine.
Kennedy, who’s President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Health and Human Services agency, told the Senate finance committee that he would amend his ethics disclosure after several senators, including Democrat Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and his cousin Caroline Kennedy raised concerns about his financial arrangement with the law firm representing patients who are claiming injuries from the vaccines.
"An amendment to my Ethics Agreement is in process, and it provides that I will divest my interest in this litigation," Kennedy said in a written response to the committee.
Initially, Kennedy had told the committee that he would continue to accept referral fees in legal cases that don't involve the U.S. government. That included an arrangement with a law firm that’s sued Merck over Gardasil, its human papillomavirus vaccine that prevents cervical cancer. The deal earned Kennedy $850,000 last year, and he told senators he had referred hundreds of clients to the firm.