Rumsfeld's Growing Stake in Tamiflu (who you're helping if you panic)

[No Exit]

Rumsfeld's growing stake in Tamiflu

Defense Secretary, ex-chairman of flu treatment rights holder, sees portfolio value growing.

October 31, 2005: 10:55 AM EST

By Nelson D. Schwartz, Fortune senior writer

NEW YORK (Fortune) - The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people around the globe, but it's proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that's now the most-sought after drug in the world.

Rumsfeld served as Gilead (Research)'s chairman from 1997 until he joined the Bush administration in 2001, and he still holds a Gilead stake valued at between $5 million and $25 million, according to federal financial disclosures filed by Rumsfeld.

The forms don't reveal the exact number of shares Rumsfeld owns, but in the past six months fears of a pandemic and the ensuing scramble for Tamiflu have sent Gilead's stock from $35 to $47. That's made the Pentagon chief, already one of the wealthiest members of the Bush cabinet, at least $1 million richer.

Rumsfeld isn't the only political heavyweight benefiting from demand for Tamiflu, which is manufactured and marketed by Swiss pharma giant Roche. (Gilead receives a royalty from Roche equaling about 10% of sales.) Former Secretary of State George Shultz, who is on Gilead's board, has sold more than $7 million worth of Gilead since the beginning of 2005.

(snip)

http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/31/news/newsmakers/fortune_rumsfeld/

[seabeyond]

1. husband talking to pediatrician about getting drug. dr doesn't

recommend it. he says it hooks to dna and changes it so flu cant attach to dna, and it bothers the doctor that this drug changes dna. my husband is going to talk to another doctor friday to find out what he is saying. be as wary of this drug as (ok more wary) the flu

[NNadir]

4. Do your children have the flu?

[seabeyond]

10. why do you ask? n/t

[NNadir]

11. Because you're trying to get Tamiflu.

[seabeyond]

12. i am not doing anything,my husband is. i am passing the information

that i have received at this point pertaining to tamiflu. i have never done the flu shots and dont get that for my boys. i have issue with vaccinations that law has required i get for my boys. i doubt that we would get tamiflu, with the information we have received to this point. i am well aware of your argument i have already used it on my husband

now, i do think it is interesting what husband shared with me. especially as i just read the article about requiring non tested vaccines and not able to sue if a person is damaged by them. on top of that the increase in hyperbpole on bird flu

[NNadir]

13. Well, for the record, Tamiflu does not interact with DNA.

It acts on an enzyme involved in releasing an new viral particle into the blood stream. The enzyme in question is the viral neuramidase. Tamiflu shuts this virus down cold.

The virus itself interferes with the nuclear DNA, but it does this with and without tamiflu treatment.

[chimppyhater]

2. Hopefully, these a-holes

are so obsessed with the money that they will forget to get innoculated and die from their greed. The irony of something like that would be wonderful...

[katty]

3. don't take-don't trust any Gov vaccines in bush's america

[yy4me]

5. There seems to be NO ****politician who is not connected

to some company that can and will profit from current or perceived disasters in this country. Now its Rummy and bird flu..what next, condi and mad cow disease(shoe leather shortage). I'm about ready for a rant.

[Child_Of_Isis]

6. "I don't know of any biotech company that's so politically well-connected,

Well well...that pretty much explains it.

[dflprincess]

7. Well, it's only fair.

After all that money Cheney and his pals at Halliburton have made off Iraq, Rummy should get a piece of the action too.

[No Exit]

8. So many of the "health reports" and "your health" news stories

that we see/hear are the result of SOMEONE (not always the same person/corporation/promoters) deliberately jacking with the stock market.

A largely distributed "warning" or other similar article can make a product's shares plunge. Anyone remember how a rumor was once started that Proctor & Gamble had "devil worship" logo on their products? That was sabotage of Proctor & Gamble (by some rival, no doubt.)

[No Exit]

9. It took stupid me a long time to realize it, but

what they do is drive a company's shares down in price by creating some sort of widespread negative publicity about the company or product. Then they buy the shares at the lower price, and sit back while the negative publicity subsides and the share price starts to rise again. Then when they think the share price has gone as high as it's gonna go, they sell. Voila: they've made a profit.

Of course, with the "bird flu" crap, they're putting out TOTAL BULLSHIT publicity to drive UP the value of the product (Tamiflu) and of the share prices. Needless to say, the higher the price of its shares, the more money the company that manufactures the drug can make.

Can't anyone see the parallels between this "bird flu" shit and the anthrax panic?? Cipro went sky high and someone sure took home a big bundle of money. Yes, I know people really died from the anthrax. I am not above suspecting that those who killed those victims with the anthrax were actually part of the moneymaking scheme.