TRUMP MAY HAVE RECEIVED A LIFE-SAVING EXPERIMENTAL DRUG NO-ONE ELSE CAN ACCESS
An unnamed patient became the only person to gain access to Eli Lilly’s experimental drug Retatrutide through the FDA’s Expanded Access program.
Senator Maggie Hassan on Wednesday asked Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to say whether President Donald Trump received an experimental obesity drug through a federal program meant for the seriously ill. Hassan, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care, sent Kennedy a letter with five questions and a request for all related documents.
The letter follows a STAT News report on Tuesday. STAT found that in April, a senior clinician at the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Ranganath Muniyappa, requested Eli Lilly’s experimental drug Retatrutide for a single patient through the FDA’s Expanded Access program. The drug is not approved and is not for sale. Expanded Access, also called compassionate use, is limited by law to patients with serious or immediately life-threatening conditions who have no approved alternative.
REPP TED LIEU JOINS SEN MAGGIE HASSAN IN DEMANDING ANSWERS
Muniyappa listed the diagnosis as refractory obesity, obstructive sleep apnea, and pulmonary hypertension, and noted the patient was too old for bariatric surgery. Three sources told STAT the patient was a 79-year-old man. Trump was 79 in April. He turned 80 on June 14. STAT reported that the application appeared as a sparse post on the government’s clinical-trials site that named neither the condition nor who would qualify, and said the filing suggested the recipient was well-connected. STAT’s reporter, Lizzy Lawrence, said she does not know the patient’s identity.
SENATOR HASSAN’S LETTER
Hassan’s five questions to Kennedy: Was it Trump? If not, was it a senior official, donor, or someone close to the administration? Did the recipient pay for the drug, and if so, how much? Who at HHS approved the application? What communications passed between HHS and the White House? What communications passed between HHS and Eli Lilly?
The White House denies the patient was Trump. Communications director Steven Cheung called Representative Ted Lieu, who first raised the question, a “dumbass.” Deputy press secretary Kush Desai called the reporting “deranged” and said the application “was not for the President.” Neither named the patient.
Every agency in the request reports to the Trump administration. Muniyappa works at the NIH under director Jay Bhattacharya, a Trump appointee. Bhattacharya and the FDA both answer to Kennedy, who now holds Hassan’s questions. The patient’s name and the approving official’s signature exist in HHS records. Whether Kennedy releases them is the open question.
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