STAT+: Pharmalittle: We're reading about RFK Jr. conflicts, new warnings on MS drugs, and more

Top of the morning to you, and a fine one it is, although we confess it is a bit frigid here on the Pharmalot campus. Even the official mascots are spending less time foraging for breakfast. Thankfully, they are now snoozing, which means we are free to focus on the matters at hand — rummaging through our to-do list and making cups of stimulation. Our choice today is Mexican cinnamon, an unusual delight. As always, we invite you to join us. Meanwhile, here is the latest menu of tidbits to help you get started yourself. We hope your day is simply smashing and that you conquer the world. And of course, do keep in touch. We have adjusted our settings to accept postcards and telegrams. …

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s pick to be health secretary, is keeping his financial stake in major litigation against Merck over a widely used vaccine given to young people, according to The New York Times. That conflict of interest could raise questions for lawmakers as Kennedy aims to run agencies that regulate the drugmaker. An ethics document said Kennedy would continue to collect fees for cases in which he referred clients to Wisner Baum, a law firm suing Merck over Gardasil, a vaccine that protects against the human papillomavirus, or HPV. The vaccine is administered to adolescents to prevent cervical and other cancers later in life. The arrangement with Wisner Baum, which also includes other matters, has earned Kennedy, one of the nation’s fiercest vaccine critics, more than $2.5 million in the past two years, according to records filed with federal election officials for his presidential run and the agreement, approved by the Office of Government Ethics as part of the confirmation process.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s disclosure that he invested in a gene-editing biotech belies a years-long track record of voicing concerns about a technology he would be in position to regulate if confirmed to lead the federal health department, STAT writes. On multiple occasions, Kennedy has commented on the potential of CRISPR, a potent and powerful gene-editing tool, to disrupt DNA in unintended and unsafe ways. The nonprofit that RFK Jr. founded and led for years, Children’s Health Defense, has repeatedly raised those same concerns. That track record raises the question of how he would regulate gene-editing research and drug development as head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a role that would give him power over the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. National Institutes of Health, among other agencies.

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