A mi­cro-cap with a po­ten­tial­ly promis­ing coro­n­avirus drug en­lists mask-skep­tic con­gress­man for DSMB

A small biotech that has talked up a po­ten­tial­ly promis­ing but un­proven treat­ment for Covid-19 en­list­ed an un­usu­al mem­ber for its study’s Da­ta and Safe­ty Mon­i­tor­ing Board: a sit­ting Re­pub­li­can con­gress­man with close ties to the CEO and a his­to­ry of mask skep­ti­cism.

Neu­roRx, an Is­raeli biotech test­ing a lung in­flam­ma­tion drug in Covid-19 pa­tients, tapped Mary­land Rep. Andy Har­ris for the DSMB, Politi­co re­port­ed. Har­ris is an anes­the­si­ol­o­gist but not a bio­sta­tis­ti­cian, and he has ques­tioned the CDC about a “cult of masks” in the US. Har­ris has known Neu­roRx CEO Jonathan Javitt since the two worked at Johns Hop­kins to­geth­er over 20 years ago.

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