Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to continue to receive referral fees from a law firm that is suing pharma powerhouse Merck & Co. over the marketing and sale of one of its vaccines.
RFK Jr.’s plan—which was revealed (PDF) in a signed ethics agreement that was made public earlier this week—raises conflict-of-interest issues as he is seeking confirmation to run an agency that regulates Merck and other drugmakers.
The law firm, Wisner Baum, represents clients who are suing Merck for not warning that its HPV vaccine Gardasil could cause cervical cancer. RFK Jr. has played a key role in organizing Gardasil litigation in the U.S., according to Reuters, and has rights to 10% of fees recovered in certain cases.
The New York Times was first to make the link between Wisner Baum and the action it is taking against Merck and to report the associated concerns with RFK Jr. given his ethics statement.
Upon his potential confirmation, RFK Jr. said he would resign as a consultant for the firm but would still collect referral fees for cases that the company won, provided—per HHS and ethics committee review—that they don’t involve the U.S.
"I will retain a contingency fee interest in cases that the ethics office of the Department of Health and Human Services has determined do not involve the United States as a party and in which the United States does not have a direct and substantial interest," RFK Jr. wrote in the document. "I am entitled to receive a portion of future recovery in these cases based upon the set percentage as set forth in the referral agreement."
Conversely, in cases that do involve the U.S. government, RFK Jr. pledged to divest his financial interest, according to the filing. The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program—a special legal system for suspected vaccine-related injuries—falls under HHS authority, so RFK Jr. would presumably divest his interest in any of those petitions.
RFK Jr. collected $856,000 from Wisner Baum last year, according to his financial disclosure form (PDF).
Besides the Gardasil litigation, Wisner Baum is active in lawsuits concerning Pfizer's injectable birth control drug Depo-Provera, Novo Nordisk's Ozempic, Indivior's pain drug Suboxone and other medicines. The firm has a history of litigation involving the drug industry, according to its website.
RFK Jr., for his part, has a decades-long history of spreading anti-vaccine rhetoric and conspiracy theories, including the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism. When his HHS nomination was announced, stock prices for many of the world’s top vaccine makers dropped.
In his ethics statement, RFK Jr. explained that he has removed himself from the Children’s Health Defense (CHD), an organization that has filed nearly 30 vaccine-related lawsuits. During the COVID pandemic, the CHD was active in spreading vaccine misinformation, leading to its suspension from Facebook and Instagram. RFK Jr. resigned from the CHD last month.
In the ethics statement, RFK Jr. also revealed that he plans to divest his holdings in several companies—including CRISPR Therapeutics and Dragonfly Therapeutics.
Most of RFK Jr.’s income comes from work as a partner at his law firm, Kennedy & Madonna, which changed its name to Madonna & Madonna on Jan. 13. He brought in about $8.8 million annually from the firm, per the disclosure.
RFK Jr. faces a confirmation hearing on Jan. 29.