BioPharma, Legal, Policy

‘Reasonable grounds’ to believe Bright’s removal from BARDA retaliatory, whistleblower agency says

Rick Bright's attorneys said in an emailed statement Friday that the Office of the Special Counsel would request a 45-day stay on Bright's removal as director of BARDA. Bright was removed over his objections to broad use of two malaria drugs in Covid-19.

The branded version of hydroxychloroquine, which French drugmaker Sanofi markets outside the U.S., where the decades-old drug is available only in generic form.

The federal agency that investigates whistleblower complaints has determined there are “reasonable grounds” that Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority Director Rick Bright was forced out of his position in retaliation against his objections to promotion of a pair of malaria drugs for Covid-19, his attorneys said Friday.

In an emailed statement, lawyers Debra Katz and Lisa Banks of the Washington law firm Katz, Marshall & Banks said they had learned Thursday afternoon of the Office of the Special Counsel’s determination, and that the office would request a stay on his removal by the Department of Health and Human Services. The stay would last for 45 days in order to allow OSC to complete its investigation.

“The OSC has made a threshold determination that HHS violated the Whistleblower Protection Act by removing Dr. Bright from his position because he made protected disclosures in the best interest of the American public,” Katz and Banks said.

Bright filed his whistleblower complaint with the OSC earlier this week, alleging that he was removed from his position last month over his resistance to the Trump administration’s promotion of broad use of the drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for Covid-19 despite shaky scientific evidence to support their efficacy, and in particular after he gave an anonymous interview to the press. The Food and Drug Administration granted a limited emergency use authorization for the drugs in March, based on a request sent under Bright’s name. However, the agency more recently advised that the drugs, which can have dangerous and potentially fatal side effects, not be used outside of a hospital or clinical trial setting.

However, Bright also alleged that his immediate supervisor, Robert Kadlec, assistant secretary for preparedness and response, as well as HHS Secretary Alex Azar, had been “gunning” for his removal due to his objections during the past three years to pressure to award BARDA contracts on the basis of political connections and cronyism rather than science.

Bright, who had served as director of BARDA since 2016, originally said last month that he was forced out of his position and into another position of lesser importance at the National Institutes of Health.

Photo: Laurent Viteur, Getty Images

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