Ethics Watchdog Urges Investigation Into Top Health Official, Alleging Conflict of Interest Over Hormone Therapy Policy
In its letter, the Campaign Legal Center cited the ProPublica investigation that found Jackson spoke at an HHS press conference last November and was quoted in a department news release announcing the decision to remove “black box warnings” from hormone replacement therapy products.
Key points
- Ethics experts said the funds could pose a serious conflict of interest if the underlying businesses received grants or contracts from her agency.
- Neither Jackson nor the HHS will say whether she obtained a conflict-of-interest waiver before participating in the policy announcement.
- The center’s review identified an additional potential conflict — investments in a second firm that provides hormone treatments for menopause.
Health Official Backed a Medication Policy Shift That Benefited a Company She Has Stock In It’s unclear what role, if any, Jackson played in the decision to drop the requirement to display a black box warning, the most serious type of federal safety warning.
Additional details
- At the time, Jackson owned at least $115,000 in stock and an unknown amount of stock options in Evernow, a company she founded that connects women to hormone replacement treatments, according to her financial disclosures.
- Still, ethics experts noted that federal law prohibits government employees from participating “personally and substantially” in matters that could influence their personal finances — even making statements at a press conference or in a news release.
- Jackson, who heads the HHS agency that invests taxpayer money in medical technology and research, was recently placed on administrative leave, though health officials have not publicly explained why.
- ProPublica’s investigation found that Jackson reported she and her husband owned more than 60 venture capital and private equity funds that she said do not disclose their holdings to investors.
- Under federal law, financial disclosure forms filed by federal officials like Jackson must then be certified by ethics staff as complying with the law.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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