The congressman didn’t mince words when the Food and Drug Administration aired a plan to regulate diagnostic tests at a recent hearing. That could slow approvals, Representative Christopher Collins warned: “You run the risk of causing people to die.”
What Collins didn’t say at the hearing was that he has a financial stake in the issue: He co-founded a company that makes components for those tests. And he retains an ownership stake in that company, an asset he values at between $5 million and $25 million.
Welcome to Congress, where such arrangements are legal — and to many critics, deeply disturbing.
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