ELISSA NADWORNY, HOST:
Every year, high-ranking federal officials have to file financial reports disclosing their business ties and what assets they own. This is meant to ensure that they don't put their personal interests ahead of the U.S. citizens they serve. The deadline to file the papers was back in May, but ethics officials still have not released the filings for several of President Trump's Cabinet members. One of them is Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. NPR pharmaceuticals correspondent Sydney Lupkin has been tracking his forms and joins us now. Hi, Sydney.
SYDNEY LUPKIN, BYLINE: Hi.
NADWORNY: So you and many others have been waiting for these public disclosures for months now. What do you want to know?
LUPKIN: Yeah, so it starts back in 2025 when Kennedy was going through the Senate confirmation process. He signed an ethics agreement about how he would handle various income streams from his previous life. That included his work as an antivaccine activist and as an attorney. In that paperwork, he said he would keep receiving fees from a law firm called Wisner Baum. Wisner Baum had sued the drug company Merck over claims that it failed to properly warn consumers about risks from its HPV vaccine, Gardasil. Kennedy referred families to the firm to join the class action. And for each referral, he could get a 10% cut of any awards or settlement money.
NADWORNY: And can you explain why that might present a conflict now that Kennedy is health secretary?
LUPKIN: Well, yeah, HHS includes the Food and Drug Administration, and the FDA regulates pharmaceutical companies, including Merck, the target of this lawsuit. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts made a big point about this conflict during Kennedy's confirmation hearing. After that, he amended his ethics agreement. It said that any referral fees from the lawsuit would not come to him but instead would be sent to a, quote, "nondependent adult family member." But remember, Kennedy holds a lot of power over companies like Merck. Kathleen Clark is a law professor at Washington University who specializes in government ethics. Here's what she thinks lawmakers like Warren are concerned about.
KATHLEEN CLARK: What if Merck is just plying HHS Secretary Kennedy with money through this settlement because Merck has a lot of business before HHS?
NADWORNY: So what is actually going on with that lawsuit involving the HPV vaccine and Merck?
LUPKIN: So that settled in June, but neither Wisner Baum nor Merck would tell me how much money they settled for. In response to reports that the settlement was $50 million, Senator Warren and other lawmakers started asking questions again about whether someone in Kennedy's family profited. On August 1, Kennedy responded on social media. He said the fees went, quote, "back to the Wisner Baum law firm" and that they haven't gone to his family, not even his sons, one of whom works at the law firm. I'm not really sure what to make of this when he said before that the fees would go to a family member, but it's one reason ethics watchdogs really want to see his annual disclosure.
NADWORNY: OK, so when might we actually find out what's going on?
LUPKIN: Well, it appears that Kennedy might have received an extension on the deadline. But even if he did, that later deadline is upon us. So the papers should be released in the next few days, and I'll be watching for them. I did reach out to the health department about the legal fees but haven't heard back yet.
NADWORNY: That is NPR's Sydney Lupkin. Thanks so much for your reporting.
LUPKIN: You bet. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
