SIGA under investigation after former New York COVID czar’s comments on vaccine released

Former employer of New York City’s former Covid czar is under investigation for potential violations of federal securities laws after he apparently told an unidentified woman that the company had hired to “present” the media with facts about the monkeypox drug they were manufacturing.

Two New York-based law firms launched investigations into SIGA Technologies this week, on behalf of its investors, after the pharmaceutical company’s former chief medical officer and executive chairman, Dr. Jay Varma, was caught making these comments on a hidden camera.

Varma, who served as a senior health advisor to former Mayor Bill de Blasio, apparently admitted to using the media to “tell stories” to get SIGA’s monkeypox drug TPOXX back and preserve the company’s stock price, according to Levi & Korsinsky, one of the law firm investigating.

Highly edited excerpts from the secret recording between Varma and a so-called undercover agent were released Wednesday as part of conservative podcaster Steven Crowder’s “Mug Club” series.

Another law firm investigating possible safety claims on behalf of SIGA investors — Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz — noted that the company had conducted a clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of TPOXX in the treatment of Mpox.

But on August 15, a clinical trial found that the drug had not “achieved its primary objective,” Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz said.

Varma reportedly said this apparent “manipulation” campaign was carried out to convince investors “not to dump the stock, thinking the company was worthless,” according to Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz.

Following the publication of Varma’s comments, SIGA shares fell more than 15%, the law firm said.

Varma was fired from SIGA on September 19 after he was caught on a secret recording publicly bragging about hosting sex parties and attending an underground Manhattan rave party at the height of the pandemic, while he was the city’s COVID czar.

He was also removed from the board of directors of pharmaceutical companies.

SIGA released a statement Wednesday calling Varma’s comments “inaccurate and misleading.”

“We are deeply angered by his comments and behavior that do not reflect SIGA, the way we do business or our values,” SIGA said.

“He is no longer affiliated in any way with SIGA.”

“His recent comments regarding SIGA and TPOXX represent his personal views and relate to areas of our business for which he was not responsible during his year as an employee of SIGA,” the statement continued.

The edited clips of Varma were allegedly filmed on a hidden camera and recorded between July 27 and August 14 in New York.

In the second video, Varma described the Food and Drug Administration’s approval process while discussing the drug “tecovirimat” or “TPOXX” from SIGA Technologies.

“That’s why it’s useful to talk about it in the media. We want the FDA to approve our drugs, especially for monkeypox, and at the moment they are only considered experimental and they will not approve it,” he said.

In the United States, TPOXX is not approved by the FDA for the treatment of Mpox, but may be used to treat patients in a clinical trial known as the Tecovirimat Study for Mpox Virus (STOMP), according to SIGA Technologies.

The company’s website adds that the STOMP trial is ongoing to evaluate the effectiveness of TPOXX for the treatment of Mpox.

Varma then said in the video filmed Aug. 14 that his then-employer was “stuck with our drug” but that people wouldn’t have “as much confidence in him because the data doesn’t seem as strong as it is.” should.”

“Sometimes you do a study, and it just…nothing works at all, or people get really sick from it,” he said in the secret recording.

“The problem is if you do another study, it will take a year or two, because you have to get ethics approval, you have to get money, you have to bring in patients.”

In the videos, Varma then gushed about how he “knows journalists well” and referenced a September interview with the New York Times about Mpox, which touted TPOXX as a drug used to treat Mpox infection .

Varma also outlined the World Health Organization’s “emergency authorization” process before explaining how he wants the media to report on TPOXX.

“So basically what we’re trying to get the media to say is, ‘Oh, the drug didn’t work because it was poorly designed.’ So they’re going to do another study, and it’ll probably work” and in the meantime, people are just prescribing it as an emergency medicine. That’s what we want the story to be,” he said in the edited clip.

Varma added that the risk of Mpox spreading in the United States is “very low” and “almost certainly going to remain among gay men.”

“(Mpox) has basically penetrated the sexual networks of gay men…and a lot of gay men have tons and tons of sexual partners and often don’t use condoms, so as a result it spreads more easily,” said the doctor, who previously bragged about hosting sex parties for 10 people during the pandemic.

The identity of the woman Varma was speaking to – or where he met her – was unclear. The nature of their relationship was also unclear.

Additional reporting by Aneeta Bhole