As mentioned yesterday, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis is backpedaling from its payment of $1.2 million to Trump attorney David Cohen. Payment was in return for his ability to give the company insight into the Trump administration. The fallout has included resignations of both the former CEO, Joe Jimenez, and Novartis attorney Felix Ehrat, both of which signed the contract with Cohen.
But though Novartis wants to publicly mitigate its attempt to cozy up with the Trump administration, the incoming CEO, Vasant Narasimhan, had dinner with Trump last fall with a handful of other business leaders from Europe at the World Economic Forum.
It was reported today that the FDA has approved a drug produced by Novartis and Amgen called Aimovig. According to the FDA, the drug treats migraines “by blocking the activity of calcitonin gene-related peptide, a molecule that is involved in migraine attacks.” Aimovig should be available for purchase within a week.
Note that one individual on the venn, Novartis Board Member Nancy Andrews, is not only a member of the NIH Scientific Management Review Board, but her research has also been continuously funded by the NIH since 1993.
The incoming CEO, Narasimhan, has no covered positions in government, but includes in his CV a master's degree in public policy from the JFK School of Gov't – a strange field of study for a doctor with both a biology degree and an MD. It's likely this field of study was meant to facilitate his work in promoting government mandate of vaccines, especially since Narasimhan worked from 2007 to 2014 in the Novartis department of Vaccines and Diagnostics, not in biological research but in marketing.
Below is the Shadow Ties venn published yesterday showing the details of the Novartis scandal involving Michael Cohen.
