Trump Admin Blew $21M On “Laughable” Pepcid Study

The Associated Press reports:

In early April, when government scientists learned of a proposal to spend millions in federal research funding to study Pepcid, they found it laughable, according to interviews, a whistleblower complaint and internal government records obtained by The Associated Press.

But that didn’t stop the Trump administration from granting a $21 million emergency contract to researchers trying it out on ailing COVID-19 patients. The FDA gave the clinical trial speedy approval even as a top agency official worried that the proposed daily injections of high doses of famotidine for already sick patients pushed safety “to the limits.”

The Pepcid project has underscored what critics describe as the Trump administration’s casual disregard for science and anti-corruption rules that are meant to guard against taxpayer dollars going to political cronies or to fund projects that aren’t rigorously designed.