POLITICS
Donor’s Tweets Add to Ritchie’s Fundraising Drama
Out gay rising star’s campaign stumbles over Daniel Loeb’s fi nancial support
BY MATT TRACY
Out gay Councilmember Ritchie Torres
of the Bronx made it clear from
the beginning of his congressional
campaign that he would not join the
growing herd of Democratic candidates who
have disavowed campaign donations from real
estate developers or other big-money corporate
interests.
That decision has morphed into a recurring
theme in his campaign and the most recent
chapter of that book comes with an entirely new
twist.
The Daily News reported on November 10
that Torres accepted $11,200 in donations from
billionaire Daniel Loeb and his wife, Margaret,
two years after Loeb said State Senate Majority
Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins’ support
of public school teachers unions instead of
charter schools did “more damage to people
of color than anyone who has ever donned a
hood” — a remarkably infl ammatory charge to
level against the African-American Westchester
County Democrat.
The donations to Torres’ campaign followed
a 2017 City Council speaker race during which
Torres responded to those comments by making
NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL/ JEFF REED
Out gay Bronx Councilmember Ritchie Torres’ donations have
increasingly dogged him early in his campaign for Congress.
a pledge not to take Loeb’s money, saying,
“Money in politics should refl ect the people we
represent, and our values as public servants.”
That was not the only time Loeb made cringeworthy
statements. In 2016, Dealbreaker.com
posted screenshots of Loeb’s social media post
attacking teachers unions as “the biggest single
force standing in the way of quality education
and an organization that has done more to
perpetuate poverty and discrimination against
people of color than the KKK.”
In addition to the $11,200 from Loeb and his
wife, the hedge fund manager was also the only
donor to the Quality Public Schools Political Action
Committee — which has steered $5,600
into Torres’ campaign.
Torres defended Loeb’s donations to his campaign
when responding to the Daily News’ reporting,
accusing opposition researchers of being
“behind this story” and stating that nobody
should be “defi ned by one comment we made
in our lives.” He also painted Loeb as a “prolifi c
donor to the Democratic Party and to progressive
causes like Raise the Age. There’s nothing
unusual about seeking support from supporters
of Democratic candidates and Democratic
causes.”
Loeb, however, has been steering much of
his political contributions into the war chests
of Republicans and conservatives, including
a $128,800 boost to the National Republican
Congressional Committee earlier this year.
The latest news drew criticism from out lesbian
former gubernatorial candidate Cynthia
Nixon, who said in a tweet, “Outrageous. Bronx
Congressional candidate Ritchie Torres is taking
$$ from a (largely Republican) hedge fund do-
➤ TORRES AND LOEB, continued on p.13
HEALTH
US Sues Gilead for HIV Drug Patent Infringement
Pharma giant profi ted millions from medication enabled by taxpayer-funded research
BY MATT TRACY
The US government is suing Gilead for
patent infringement just months after
AIDS activists cried foul over the
pharmaceutical company’s collection
of taxpayer dollars to fund research of drugs
that cost consumers up to $2,000 per month.
The Department of Health and Human Services’
76-page complaint, fi led in the US District
Court in Delaware, asserts that Gilead
deliberately violated the department’s patents
related to HIV prevention drugs approved for
use as pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP, and
has raked in cash by having taxpayers foot
the bill for research, only to turn around and
charge patients high prices for those drugs.
The lawsuit notes that government research
costing “hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars”
confi rmed the effectiveness of the PrEP
treatments and that the US Patent and Trademark
DONNA ACETO
Activists in May protested Gilead’s PrEP monopoly in Columbus
Circle, at the nearby Trump International Hotel and Tower, and
outside the East 52nd Street headquarters of BlackRock Financial
Group, the pharma giant’s leading investor.
Offi ce granted the CDC four patents protecting
PrEP regimens, entitling the CDC to license
those regimens and receive royalties for
their use.
“As its PrEP sales have skyrocketed, Gilead
has exaggerated its role in developing PrEP,” the
lawsuit states. “In so doing, Gilead has ignored
CDC’s clear contributions and baselessly denied
the validity of CDC’s patents. Gilead’s only
contribution to CDC’s patented research was
providing samples of the drugs that CDC used
for testing purposes.”
The suit goes on to allege that Gilead “has
repeatedly refused to obtain a license from CDC
to use the patented regimens” while profi ting
from research, and that “Gilead has reaped billions
from PrEP through the sale of Truvada
and Descovy, but has not paid any royalties to
CDC.”
The government directly blames Gilead in
the suit for having “willfully and deliberately induced
infringement of CDC’s patents” and says
➤ GILEAD, continued on p.13
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