Donald Trump’s pick of TV doctor Mehmet Oz threatens to bring an “ethical morass” to an administration already packed with controversial picks, a report warned Monday.
Major financial links tie the heart surgeon’s media company to huge drug companies he would be in charge of monitoring as the incoming president’s head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, the Washington Post reported.
One of those companies is the manufacturer of weight loss drug Ozempic, a product he’s openly praised as far back as 2019.
“Whoa! Now we’re talking!” Oz gushed as he spoke to comedian Billy Gardell on his show about the drug’s effect on his management of diabetes and attempt to shed pounds — a section that was sponsored by the drug’s maker, Novo Nordisk, which Oz called a “trusted partner.”
“If confirmed, Oz would take over two of the largest taxpayer-funded programs just as pharmaceutical companies are lobbying the government to cover the cost of weight-loss drugs,” the Post wrote.
And yet, on his website, Oz continues to promote the drug and even sells a product to treat sagging facial skin known as “Ozempic face,” the Post reported.
“Having ongoing financial ties to a health-care company would create a disincentive to do the job the American people need done by the person in his position,” Walter Shaub Jr., who headed the Office of Government Ethics for more than four years, told the Post.
“The situation could be an ethical morass, unless he is truly willing to alter his finances and business dealings.”
A spokesperson for Novo Nordisk told the Post it does not have a relationship with Oz.
Trump’s transition spokesman Brian Hughes said, “All nominees and appointees will comply with the ethical obligations of their respective agencies.”
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But the Post detailed the financial stakes that are in play. Expanding Medicare coverage to weight loss drugs would come with a $35 billion cost in just 8 years, Congressional Budget Office figures show.
And Oz critics say promotions on “The Dr. Oz Show” threaten many more potential conflicts of interest.
“Through various media channels, he has not only pushed “miracle” treatments for fat loss that lack scientific evidence, but also promoted companies in which he has had a vested financial interest, including a “cellular nutrition company” and a biotech company creating bovine colostrum supplements — the powdered or pill version of the first milk a cow releases after giving birth,” the Post reported.
Oz’s spokesman told the Post, “As a world-renowned cardiothoracic surgeon who led the heart institute at New York Presbyterian Medical Center, Dr. Mehmet Oz is eminently qualified to help Make America Healthy Again. Dr. Oz’s knowledge and success in health care, innovation, and communications will be an invaluable asset to the American people in the Trump-Vance Administration, and he appreciates the opportunity President Trump has given him to lead CMS.”
