When It Comes to Sickle Cell Therapy, Leticia James Believes Black Lives Don’t Matter

The Trump Administration has a chance to make right what Leticia James helped make wrong.

New York Attorney General Leticia James was alerted of a conspiracy to suppress life-saving pharmaceutical drugs in 2019, but chose to ignore credible whistleblower warnings in favor of building her lawfare case against Donald Trump.

Whistleblower Patrick Girondi has been fighting for decades on a cure for beta thalassemia, a disease negatively affecting the production of hemoglobin in the afflicted, after the disease was discovered in his two-year-old son, Rocco. Girondi was an early investor in gene therapy, coming up with a treatment for beta thalassemia as well as sickle-cell anemia, a similar disease that is prevalent among black people.

James looked the other way after she was presented with the evidence by Girondi, preferring to use her resources to build a bogus case against President Trump instead of using her authority to clamp down on corporate corruption that is keeping life-saving drugs out of the hands of black people across New York.

THE BACKSTORY

Girondi’s quest began after his son Rocco was diagnosed with beta thalassemia and not expected to live past the age of 14. Presently, Rocco is forced to get blood transfusions every 18 days and takes 10 pills each day to prevent toxic iron from building up in his blood and organs as the potential cure is suppressed from him and the public.

After his son’s diagnosis, Girondi became an unlikely pioneer in the controversial field of gene therapy, which was looked at as “science fiction” in the 1990s and early 2000s. Girondi made stunning progress in the field, and he eventually caught the eyes of the corporate giants as he hoped to mainstream his work. He was locked into a long legal battle with the gene-therapy firm Bluebird Bio and the Sloan Kettering Institute (SKI), the research facility connected to the renowned cancer treatment center.

Girondi's firm, San Rocco Therapeutics, alleged in court documents that they were coerced by SKI into divulging details on a potentially groundbreaking treatment. Girondi gave an important vector to SKI in 2010 under false pretenses, believing that it would help move the treatment forward to clinical trials. The SKI then buried his treatment in favor of Bluebird Bio’s more expensive treatment.

Girondi believes the problems began in 2010 when a new President and CEO of Sloan Kettering with a financial conflict of interest rose to the position. Dr. Craig B. Thompson served as the President and CEO of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center from 2010 to 2022. Dr. Thompson has deep ties to Third Rock Ventures, the venture capital fund responsible for financing Bluebird.

Court proceedings have repeatedly vindicated Girondi, who was cynically discredited and painted as insane by corporate insiders. Bluebird admitted in a Nov. 2010 presentation that one of the positives of partnering with SKI is that the deal “eliminates the most threatening competitor." Another email disclosed to the public talked about the “need to shut…down” Girondi.

Greed is the obvious factor behind suppressing this treatment. Bluebird Bio was able to raise the treatment price to $3.1 million per patient from $750,000-$800,000 offered by Girondi's firm. Because Girondi’s therapy was suppressed, they are able to rake in countless more billions worth of profits for their shareholders at the direct expense of patients who are squeezed and forced to suffer and die if they cannot bear the immense cost.

Girondi describes the corporate CEOs who he has dealt with as “criminal insider traders.” His tale is all too familiar in the era of corporate capture of regulatory firms. Countless byzantine regulations mandated by the federal government serve as a legal labyrinth to stifle innovation, crush the individual and maximize Big Pharma’s profit margins with the court system offering little recourse for those victimized.

"As a whole, [the pharmaceutical industry] is a criminal organization. Why do you think everyone wants to have transgenders? Well, because the poor people have to do hormones that cost anywhere between $3,500 and $10,000 per month. Big Pharma is pushing that," Girondi said.

LETICIA JAMES’ FAILURE

This is the health regime that has resulted in millions lionizing Luigi Mangione, the alleged assassin accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a New York City street corner. When Girondi approached Leticia James with evidence of this corruption, she had a chance to demonstrate through her actions that black lives matter, standing up to corporate corruption as black lives hung in the balance.

“In 2019, I go to Leticia James. I say, ‘Hey, you got criminals over here.’ I got all the proof, here’s all the proof. Please, they’re costing the lives of sickle cell disease patients. You got to go after them,” Girondi said.

“I am having so many meetings with Leticia James’ office…They keep telling me they don’t have resources…The neediest black lives are Sickle Cell disease patients. You want to forget about going after Trump and let's go after these bad guys?” Girondi continued.

Leticia James was too enamored with her political agenda, believing that she would be the one who would bring down Donald J. Trump and build her career from that. Unfortunately for her ambitions, James’ attacks on Trump were so overreaching, low IQ and absurd that they alerted many more people to the scope of the lawfare being pursued against Trump, only enhancing his credibility among the electorate and leading to his political comeback in 2024.

James lost her chance to be a crusader for the little guy and help black people by pursuing the corporate corruption case against Girondi. Now, she faces potential jail time and will be remembered as one of the most corrupt elected officials in American history. Meanwhile, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pledged to make gene therapy for sickle cell disease a top priority for his office.

The Trump Administration has a chance to make right what Leticia James helped make wrong.