Trump admin funds plasma company based in owner's condo

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An AP investigation finds the Trump administration gave a well-connected Republican donor seed money to test a possible COVID-19-fighting blood plasma technology, despite the concerns of government scientists. rplardner & jhdearen

, a startup with an unapproved medicine injection technology and no factory to manufacture the devices.$1.6 billion vaccine contract to Novavax Inc.At the center of these deals is Dr. Robert Kadlec, a senior Trump appointee at the Department of the Health and Human Services who backed the Pepcid, Novavax and ApiJect projects. Records obtained by the AP also describe Kadlec as a key supporter of Zurlo’s company.

Zurlo, the company’s founder and a former pharmaceutical industry executive, told the AP in an email that the renewed interest in his company is being driven by COVID and other diseases. Santorum, who’s held no elective office since 2007, remains influential among social conservatives, a key part of President Donald Trump’s political base. Santorum has extolled the president’s handling of the pandemic on national television in his job as a CNN commentator, arguing that the nation’s response would have been worse under a Democratic administration.

Zurlo founded Plasma Technologies in 2003, according to articles of organization and other records filed with South Carolina’s secretary of state. The company’s most recently listed address is Zurlo’s condominium in Charleston’s French Quarter. During the pandemic, many plasma companies are focusing on “hyperimmune globulin,” a therapy that pools and purifies plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients. The result is a powerful “potential global treatment for people at risk for serious complications from COVID-19,” according to the CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance, an industry group that includes the world’s largest plasma companies. Hyperimmune globulin produced by several companies is being tested in new COVID-19 patients.

But Santorum described the plasma fractionation industry as more interested in keeping shareholders happy than adopting new technologies that would require expensive modifications to their manufacturing lines. Santorum blamed the deal’s demise on onerous regulatory hurdles imposed by the Food and Drug Administration to ensure patient safety.Santorum rejected any suggestion that Zurlo’s innovation is unproven, even though his company has never made an FDA-approved product. Plasma Technologies, he declared, is on the verge of transforming the industry, and for a fraction of the cost to develop a coronavirus vaccine.Zurlo brought Santorum aboard after the agreement with Abeona fell through.

Santorum credited Marks, director of FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, for pledging to remove barriers that have kept Plasma Technologies on the outside, looking in. “All I’m saying is, we have an opportunity because of Dr. Marks and what he has laid forward,” Santorum said at the workshop.

“Dr. Marks’ enthusiastic nature should not be mistaken for support for any specific product or technology,” FDA spokeswoman Stephanie Caccomo said. But Santorum’s initial pitch at HHS failed to gain traction among the agency’s scientists, who didn’t see Zurlo’s technology as worthy of millions in emergency pandemic funding, according to the emails and Rick Bright, the former BARDA director. They were focused on COVID-19 vaccines and treatments that could be delivered quickly, and saw the Plasma Technologies project as a longer-term effort.

The detailed proposal, obtained by the AP, sought $51.6 million to build a plasma fractionation facility in Atlanta or Raleigh, North Carolina. “I believe that adding one additional ‘mouth to feed’ to the same source is more likely to induce delays to the projects already underway than it is to solve problems,” Tse wrote.

 

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rplardner JHDearen there is graft and plain fuck ups under all administrations. The problem is it is too large and too many lobbyists have access to the process

rplardner JHDearen This is just insane!

rplardner JHDearen Got any laptop updates today or just bollocks like this and oreo commercial retweets?

rplardner JHDearen WTF? 🤯

karolcummins rplardner JHDearen Trump turds. We are the toilet. BidenHarrisToSaveAmerica

karolcummins rplardner JHDearen

_Politics rplardner JHDearen

rplardner JHDearen Trump said let’s drain the swamp. What he was saying, let’s not do it in Washington anymore. We can do it in other states. Lo

rplardner JHDearen Good!

rplardner JHDearen DRAIN TRUMP’S SWAMP!!!VOTE HIM OUT!!!VoteBlueToSaveAmerica2020 TrumpCrimeFamily

rplardner JHDearen Sounds kinda...swampy

rplardner JHDearen Why are you treating this different than Hunter Biden's influence?

rplardner JHDearen Oh no! Trump wants to save people from Corona by any means. How dare he.

rplardner JHDearen So they were trying to find ways to help people... gosh that sounds terrible.

rplardner JHDearen ....and the Bidens?

rplardner JHDearen This is the story that will turn his base against him

rplardner JHDearen And?

rplardner JHDearen Plasma Technologies LLC has no manufacturing facilities; the company is in the condo of majority owner and Republican donor, Eugene Zurlo. No surprise that former Republican senator, Rick Santorum, is also part-owner of the company. Trump is stripping the cupboards bare.

rplardner JHDearen Jesus...

rplardner JHDearen prove it then.

MrDJones rplardner JHDearen Must read.RT.

rplardner JHDearen Now do Hunter Biden

rplardner JHDearen Now do Ilhan Omar's funneling of money to her husband's consulting firm. Besides, 'concerns of government scientists' doesn't mean it shouldn't be a course of action.

rplardner JHDearen 2 days to go. Liberal media in full desperation mode.

rplardner JHDearen

rplardner JHDearen How much did Bidens pay Communist China to keep the sex videos a secret? Those were explicit videos I couldn't believe it. Who took the videos? Why was Biden meeting with BOBULINSKI? Schiff said he was a Russian spy? AP Tell Americans the truth

rplardner JHDearen investigate Corruption TheDemocrats

rplardner JHDearen In other news, JoeBiden has been corrupt and has no accomplishments in his 47 political years.

rplardner JHDearen Good

rplardner JHDearen What did the AP investigation in to Hunter Biden find? Oh wait...

rplardner JHDearen Hunter Biden for AG. Investigate, investigate and prosecute!

rplardner JHDearen So government scientists, who have lost all credibility, wanted the $$ to a Democrat connected one?

rplardner JHDearen OH NO! He's only supposed to give money to Democrats to stop a pandemic? You know how many people donate to the Republican and Democrat parties? GOOD LUCK FINDING ANY COMPANY WITH TECHNOLOGY OF ANY KIND THAT DOESN'T DONATE.

rplardner JHDearen Mmm and?

rplardner JHDearen Meaningless. Gone in 2 days

rplardner JHDearen Is this worse than what the Biden family did on soliciting money from foreign government.

rplardner JHDearen MUSTREAD

rplardner JHDearen

rplardner JHDearen We will be digging up realDonaldTrump’s corruption for years to come.

rplardner JHDearen Another bs nothing burger.

rplardner JHDearen Probably seed money to play algorithms with JR 😐

rplardner JHDearen National security nightmare of Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop containing phone numbers for the Clintons, Secret Service officers and most of the Obama cabinet plus his sex and drug addictions - all secured by the password Hunter02.

rplardner JHDearen 🙄🙄🙄🙄 keep swinging

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