Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Kentucky) wife bought stock in the maker of a treatment for COVID-19 in Feb. 2020, and the senator only revealed the purchase Wednesday, 16 months after the 45-day deadline in the Stock Act, designed to stop insider trading, according to the Washington Post.
Kelley Paul, purchased between $1000 and $15,000 of stock in Gilead, which makes the antiviral drug, remdesivir.
The drug gained emergency use authorization in May last year from the FDA, but it was reversed after a World Health Organization study raised doubts about its effectiveness in treating COVID. It brought in $2.8 billion for Gilead last year.
Joshua Mitts, an expert in securities law at Columbia University, said though the size of the trade was small it nonetheless “may have exploited knowledge of the impending pandemic.”
Kelsey Cooper, a spokeswoman for Sen. Paul told the Washington Post that the senator attended no briefings on the pandemic and that Kelley lost money on the investment, which she made with her own earnings. Cooper also said the senator only learned recently that the form for his wife’s investment was not submitted even though he completed it last year.
