Stepping onto Kay’s turf here and would love her viewpoint
There really is no bottom with the current iteration of the Republican party. I mean, is EVERY candidate a grifter?
Let me present to you Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee for Governor in Ohio:
Vivek Ramaswamy, a billionaire and the Republican nominee in Ohio’s gubernatorial race, served as the frontman for a dubious pharmaceutical company and then cashed out weeks before its dramatic crash.
In 2014, Ramaswamy founded Axovant, a company he used to buy the rights to an inauspicious Alzheimer’s drug that had repeatedly failed in clinical trials. Axovant then hired Ramaswamy’s mother, who, despite lacking relevant research experience, helped massage data from old clinical trials to make the drug appear more promising. The extent of the elder Ramaswamy’s role has not been previously reported.
In 2015, touting his mother’s reinterpretation of the data to potential investors and regulators, Ramaswamy led Axovant to a $1.4 billion initial public offering, the largest in biotech history at the time. He spent the ensuing two years promoting the drug intepirdine as a possible breakthrough for the millions of Americans who have Alzheimer’s disease.
Then, after structuring the company to insulate himself and other insiders from potential losses, he cashed out through a private back door weeks before another clinical failure cratered the stock price. One state retirement fund for teachers lost more than $1 million.
It’s worth reading the whole thing.
Ramaswamy’s Democratic opponent is Amy Acton. Acton is a doctor. She is a pediatrician and served for a period of time as the Director the Ohio Department of Public Health.
This should be a legitimate, direct and strong line of attack against Ramaswamy. After all, Ramaswamy - at the ripe old age of 30 - enlisted his momma (like a good boy) to manipulate results and data for a failed Alzheimer’s drug seemingly for the sole purpose of cashing out.
Unethical, immoral and possibly illegal. It seems as if Ramaswamy has hit the trifecta that so many of his other Republican candidates and elected officials have also hit on their way to rule over (instead of serve) the American people.
THe question is, can Acton make this an issue that “breaks through” to the general public? How to simplify a complex chain of events?
AS I often say, MAKE THEN PLAY DEFENSE.;
Acton could simply say, “Vivek Ramaswamy made his fortune the Republican way. Through fraud and manipulation while pretending to help our parents and grandparents deal with a debilitating illness. I can’t think of anything more disqualifying.”
Neil Young - Old Man
