Four of the eight members HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appointed to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in September own stock in drugmakers and other companies affected by the panel’s decisions, The New York Times reported Nov. 5.
The Times got the members’ conflict-of-interest waivers through a public records request. The task force’s recommendations guide clinical practice and decide which preventive services insurers must cover.
Mr. Kennedy named the eight appointees Sept. 17, bringing the panel to 16 members. In May, he removed the task force’s two vice chairs. In July 2025, the American Medical Association objected to reports that HHS planned to dismiss all 16 members.
Pediatrician Patrick K. Hunter, MD; cardiovascular experts Ronald P. Karlsberg, MD, and Venkatesh L. Murthy, MD; and diagnostic radiologist Dennis W. Wulfeck, MD, all own stock in Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson. Their other holdings include Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck, Pfizer, Novo Nordisk, CVS Health and Cigna.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Director Roger D. Klein, MD, wrote in the waivers that no single member can make a final decision on behalf of the U.S. He put the companies at 15% to 45% of the members’ portfolios.
Quyen Ngo-Metzger, MD, reviewed task force conflicts at AHRQ from 2012 to 2019. She said candidates used to have to sell holdings like these before they could be appointed.
“When you have this much involvement with industry, pharmaceutical stocks and all of these, it really undermines the trust in the process and the trust in the people,” Dr. Ngo-Metzger said.
HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said a Supreme Court ruling made members special government employees, who fall under different ethics rules. She said AHRQ is updating its procedures to match. Dr. Wulfeck declined to comment, and the other three members did not respond to the Times.
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