Senators Angela Alsobrooks and Ron Wyden sent a letter urging Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to address the risks posed by event contracts tied to drug development. Lawmakers specifically requested internal agency records, impact analyses, and details on staff participation in wagering tied to Food and Drug Administration outcomes. The scrutiny targets platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket, which list wagers on medical milestones despite medical community pushback. Kalshi has defended its contracts as tools to improve data transparency, noting it restricts trading to late-stage trials with completed patient enrollment.
Key points
Lawmakers argue that speculative wagering on medicine threatens scientific integrity, tri…: Lawmakers argue that speculative wagering on medicine threatens scientific integrity, trial enrollment, and patient outcomes.
Prediction platform Kalshi implemented specific safeguards, such as limiting contracts to…: Prediction platform Kalshi implemented specific safeguards, such as limiting contracts to late-stage trials that have finished patient enrollment.
Health agencies face growing pressure to implement formal guardrails that protect drug de…: Health agencies face growing pressure to implement formal guardrails that protect drug development from insider trading and conflicts of interest.
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Prediction market event contracts on both clinical drug trials and Food and Drug Administration regulatory approvals are drawing attention from two Democratic senators, according to a letter obtained first by CNBC.
Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., expressed concern over the related event contracts in a Wednesday letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The senators asked what measures HHS has taken to mitigate any risks that may arise from the markets.
"Allowing individuals to bet on the success of these trials and drugs undermines the scientific process, creates perverse incentives for researchers, harms trial participants, and could lead to dangerous medical outcomes for untold numbers of Americans," the senators wrote.
Alsobrooks and Wyden repeated concerns raised by some healthcare professionals that the markets could alter patient thinking when considering whether to participate in a trial and expressed concern over potential insider trading risks from researchers and regulators who may have access to nonpublic information.
Communication request
The senators requested HHS provide all internal communication regarding staff participation in prediction markets…
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