The front-runner in the Republican primary for New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District has dismissed concerns over his past relationship with the controversial drug manufacturer Mylan.
Opponents of Matt Mowers have criticized him for ties to “Big Pharma,” specifically singling out Mylan’s role in the opioid epidemic.
The Mowers campaign described these efforts as a last-ditch smear campaign ahead of the Sept. 13 primary, saying his work concerned with HIV policy, far removed from any sector of the company dealing with opioids.
At issue is a public disclosure report from Mowers’s unsuccessful 2020 congressional campaign revealing Mylan paid him at least $5,000 for “HIV policy consulting.” Mowers consulted for the company for two months in 2019.
Mylan is the world’s largest producer of HIV/AIDS drugs, and more than 40% of the world’s 20 million people being treated for the condition take a Mylan product, according to the company.
Mowers’s rivals, however, have seized on the fact that Mylan was the subject of a congressional investigation into its role in the opioid epidemic, which hit the Granite State especially hard. The investigation into Mylan, which ended in 2018, predated Mowers’s contract.
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Nonetheless, Mowers’s closest GOP rival, Karoline Leavitt, a 25-year-old former assistant to White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany in the Trump administration, told the Washington Examiner it was “shameful and disturbing” that Mowers took money from the company.
“Our families here in New Hampshire have been devastated by the opioid epidemic,” Leavitt said. “If Matt hadn’t just moved here to run for Congress, maybe he’d understand how offensive this is to Granite Staters. As your congresswoman, I will take on Big Pharma, not cozy up to them for checks.”
Another GOP rival, Gail Huff Brown, the wife of former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), told the Washington Examiner that “New Hampshire needs a member of Congress who answers only to them, not the big special interests who cut them checks in the off-season.”
Huff Brown added in a statement: “I will take on pharmaceutical companies who price gouge and poison our people for profit. As the only candidate in this race who has gone to the border to understand what is happening, I will work to secure the border, build the wall, and stop the trafficking of deadly drugs into our country.”
Mowers’s campaign strongly pushed back on any criticism, maintaining that he had no interaction with the opioid sector of the company, and dismissed the scrutiny ahead of the GOP primary as a “drive-by hit.”
“Matt worked tirelessly to lower the cost of HIV/AIDS medicine and saved billions of taxpayer dollars in the process,” John Corbett, Mowers’s campaign spokesman, told the Washington Examiner. “As someone with family who has struggled with addiction, Matt will never stop fighting to rid our country of illicit drugs like fentanyl and hold the bad actors who distribute them accountable.”
Corbett added: “This desperate drive-by hit is exactly what we expect when a tested conservative like Matt Mowers is looking to change the status quo in Washington.”
Mowers, who is originally from New Jersey, said he has been active in New Hampshire politics since 2013, previously running the state GOP. He also worked for former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, running his 2016 presidential campaign in the state.
Mowers was previously a consultant, as well as a senior White House adviser at the State Department for the Trump administration, serving as the chief of staff in the department’s Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator.
He is polling at 26% in New Hampshire, leading Leavitt at 24%, followed by Huff Brown at 16%, according to a Wednesday Granite State Poll from the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also hit Mowers for working with drug manufacturers during his 2020 congressional bid, as did his rival, Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH).
Should Mowers succeed in the primary, he will face a rematch against Pappas, who is seen as one of the more vulnerable House Democrats in the country this cycle.
“While thousands of Granite Staters struggle to afford their prescription drugs, Matt Mowers has been on the payroll of a major pharmaceutical company that was investigated by Congress for its role in the opioid crisis and raised the price of lifesaving EpiPens by 400%,” Pappas said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
As well as the opioid epidemic, Mylan has been accused of price-gouging EpiPens.
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has previously probed Mylan’s role in the opioid crisis. At the time, a spokesperson for Mylan told CNBC that it is the No. 17 supplier of opioids sold in the United States, “representing approximately 1 percent of the entire U.S. opioid market.”
“Despite being a small player in this area, we are committed to helping find solutions to the issue of opioid abuse and misuse,” the statement read.
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A report of the Senate investigation said companies, including Mylan, “played a significant role in creating the necessary conditions for the U.S. opioids epidemic.” But the Senate committee did not take further action after its inquiry.
