A Phantom Friend

I've taken on Big Pharma, I've gone to battle with Big Tech, Mehmet Oz, the Republican, Trump-endorsed Senate candidate said on Fox News in December 2021. He continued, I cannot be bought.

Well, sort of.

Oz has a considerable financial stake in major pharmaceutical and Silicon Valley firms, previously sealed records show. The GOP candidate and celebrity television doctor has poured millions of dollars into companies like Amazon and CVS -- a revelation seemingly at odds with a central tenet of his message to voters.

According to a financial disclosure report, Oz, together with his wife, owns between $6 million and $27 million in Amazon stocks, between $1.7 million and $6.6 million in Microsoft, and between $1.3 million and $5.7 million each in Apple and Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc. Even a rough estimate brings the total so far to about $47 million. Oz and his wife also have between $615,000 and $1.3 million in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific, between $15,001 and $50,000 in Johnson & Johnson, and between $50,001 and $100,000 each in CVS and the pharmaceutical company AbbVie. In all, Oz's disclosure shows that he and his spouse jointly own between $104 and $422 million in various assets and holdings.

Oz and his spouse also own between $1.5 million and $6 million shares in the fertility clinic network Prelude Fertility, and between $500,000 and $1 million in shares of Pantheryx, a biotechnology company that specializes in research regarding bovine colostrum. Oz has served as a director of both companies, the disclosure report shows.

Dr. Oz should stop masquerading as a friend of workers.