(Another payday in the making for Al Gore. His venture capital firm is heavily invested in swine flu vaccines as well as Global warming money making schemes. Wow, what a week for Al, huh? And look who he’s connected with this time; Donald Rumsfeld.)The swine flu outbreak is likely to benefit one of the most prolific and successful venture capital firms in the United States: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Thomson Reuters Private Equity Week reported on Friday.
Shares of the two public companies in the firm’s portfolio of eight Pandemic and Bio Defense companies — BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX.O) and Novavax (NVAX.O) — jumped Friday on news that the swine flu killed a reported (more then) 60 people in Mexico and has infected people in the United States.
The World Health Organization said the virus appears to be susceptible to Roche’s (ROG.VX) flu drug Tamiflu, also known as oseltamivir, but not to older flu drugs such as amantadine. [read the rest here] by Alex Haislip, Reuters
“Rummy (Donald Rumsfeld) was Chair of the Board of Directors at Gilead Sciences until named to the Bush cabinet and, like [Vice President Dick] Cheney, still has ties that bind to the ‘old company.’ Now isn’t it an ‘amazing coincidence’ that the drug Tamiflu patented by Gilead Sciences is being pushed by the National Institutes of Allergies and Infectious Diseases as the NUMBER ONE choice for flu...” SourceWatch