BIG ANTIBODY BUCKS

Top DeSantis Donor Invested Millions in COVID Drug Governor Is Pushing

The CEO of hedge fund Citadel, which has nearly $16M in shares of Regeneron, has donated more than $10M to a PAC supporting the Florida governor.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been busy pushing a COVID-19 antibody treatment that a hedge fund run by one of his top donors invested big bucks in. Ken Griffin, whose hedge fund Citadel owns $15.9 million worth of shares in Regeneron Pharmaceutical Inc., donated more than $10 million to DeSantis through a political action committee, the Associated Press reports. The governor has strongly backed the treatment—which costs more than $1,000—while continuously undermining the rollout of vaccines and mask wearing in his COVID-plagued state. After school districts defied the governor’s executive order to ban masks in schools, DeSantis suggested withholding salaries from teachers, some of whom will have to teach large swaths of unvaccinated students as the federal government has yet to expand vaccine eligibility to those under 12 years. As of Aug. 13, Florida reported more than 150,000 new cases of COVID-19 during the previous week, NBC News reported.