SIGA is under investigation after former NYC New COVID czar's comments about the vaccine were made public

The former employer of New York City's ex-Covid czar is under investigation for possible violations of federal securities laws after he apparently told an unidentified woman that the company had hired him to provide the media with facts about the monkeypox drug they manufactured “to tell”.

Two New York City-based law firms began investigating SIGA Technologies on behalf of their investors this week after the pharmaceutical company's former chief medical officer and executive president, Dr. Jay Varma, was caught making the comments on a hidden camera.

Varma, who served as a senior health adviser to former Mayor Bill de Blasio, apparently admitted to using the media to “spin stories” to save SIGA's monkeypox drug TPOXX and preserve the company's stock price, according to Levi & Korsinsky , one of those responsible. The law firm is investigating.

Edited clips of the secret recording between Varma and a so-called undercover agent were released Wednesday as part of conservative podcaster Steven Crowder's “Mug Club” series.

Another law firm investigating possible safety claims on behalf of SIGA investors – Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz – said the company conducted a clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of TPOXX in treating Mpox.

But on August 15, a clinical trial found that the drug had “failed to meet its primary endpoint,” Wolf Haldenstein told Adler Freeman & Herz.

According to Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz, Varma reportedly said that the apparent “spin” campaign was carried out to convince investors “not to dump the shares as they thought the company was worthless.”

After Varma's comments were published, SIGA's shares fell more than 15%, the law firm said.

Varma was fired from SIGA on September 19 after he was caught in a secret recording publicly bragging about hosting sex parties as the city's COVID czar during the height of the pandemic and attending an underground rave party in Manhattan to have participated.

He was also removed from the board of directors of pharmaceutical companies.

SIGA released a statement on Wednesday calling Varma's comments “inaccurate and misleading.”

“We are deeply upset by his comments and behavior that do not reflect SIGA, the way we do business or our values,” SIGA said.

“He is no longer affiliated with SIGA in any way.”

“His recent comments regarding SIGA and TPOXX represent his personal views and relate to areas of our business for which he was not responsible during his year-long engagement with SIGA,” the statement continued.

The edited clips of Varma were reportedly filmed on a hidden camera and recorded in New York City between July 27 and August 14.

In the second video, Varma described the Food and Drug Administration's approval process and discussed SIGA Technologies' drug “Tecovirimat” or “TPOXX.”

“That’s why it’s helpful to spread it through the media. We want the FDA to approve our drugs, especially for monkeypox, and right now they are only considered experimental and will not be approved,” he said.

In the United States, TPOXX is not approved by the FDA for the treatment of Mpox, but may be used to treat patients as part of a clinical trial called Study of Tecovirimat for Human Mpox Virus (STOMP), according to SIGA Technologies.

The company's website added that the STOMP study is being conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of TPOXX in the treatment of Mpox.

Varma then complained in the video filmed on August 14 that his then-employer was “stuck on our drug” but people weren't “as confident because the data doesn't look as strong as it should.”

“Sometimes you do a study and this damn… doesn't work at all, or people get really sick from it,” he said in the undercover recording.

“The problem is that if you do another study it will take a year or two because you have to get ethics approval, you have to get money, you have to get patients to come in.”

In the videos, Varma then boasted that he “knew the reporters well” and referenced an interview with the New York Times about Mpox in September in which TPOXX was touted as a drug to treat Mpox infections.

Varma also described the World Health Organization's “emergency use authorization process” and then explained how he wants the media to cover TPOXX.

“So we're basically trying to get the media to say, 'Oh, the drug didn't work because it was developed incorrectly.' So they'll do another study, and it will probably work.” In the meantime, people are just prescribing it as an emergency medication. “That’s how the story is supposed to be,” he said in the edited clip.

Varma added that the risk of Mpox spreading in the U.S. is “very low” and “will almost certainly exist among gay men as well.”

“[Mpox] “I basically fell into gay men's sexual networks … and a lot of gay men have tons of sexual partners and often don't use condoms, so it spreads more easily,” said the doctor, who previously bragged about having sex parties for 10 during the pandemic people organize.

The identity of the woman Varma spoke to – or where he met her – was unclear. The nature of their relationship was also not clear.

Additional reporting by Aneeta Bhole