A small Australian pharmaceutical company is raising eyebrows in Washington DC and with the US media after it was linked to powerful players in Donald Trump's inner-circle, including the US president-elect's pick for Health Secretary Tom Price.
Innate Immunotherapeutics' chief executive Simon Wilkinson and chairman Michael Quinn said they had never heard of many of the prominent US investors who have bought stock in the company.
They told the New York Times they first learned about Price's involvement when the Wall Street Journal wrote about it last month.
Trump's congressional liaison, another influential Republican congressman Chris Collins, is listed on Innate's website as its biggest shareholder and sits on the board.
The New York Times described Innate as a company that "has no approved drugs and no backing from flashy venture capital firms, and trades for just over a dollar a share on the Australian Stock Exchange".
"But despite its unremarkable profile, Innate has some surprisingly influential boosters in Washington," the newspaper reported.
Price purchased shares of Innate four times in 2015 and 2016, according to financial disclosures, totalling between $US60,000 and $US110,000.
Collins has been a major shareholder since 2011 and, according to another US media organisation, PBS, has gradually increased his family's holding to about 20 per cent of the company.
Collins' children, Caitlin and Cameron, are Innate's third and fourth biggest shareholders, his chief of staff, Michael Hook, is also a top shareholder while Bill Paxon, a Washington lobbyist and former congressman, invested in the company.
Mr Price, Mr Hook and Mr Paxon bought stock in the company, which has offices in Sydney and Auckland, last year when Innate offered it at a discount in a private offering to "sophisticated US investors".
The investment has quintupled in price since.
Mr Price is expected to be grilled by Democrats about his investments in Innate and other health companies at his confirmation hearings this week.
"It's just so suspicious, someone's got to ask, 'What just happened?'" Craig Holman, the government affairs lobbyist for consumer group Public Citizen, which has called on the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate, told the New York Times.
Wilkinson, Innate's chief executive, described his company as just a "little biotech at the wrong end of the world" and said they had little interest in gaining the ear of Washington's powerful players.
The company, however, was hoping to be bought by a larger pharmaceutical business.
Innate's sole drug in development is aimed at people with an advanced form of multiple sclerosis.
Clinical trials are underway in Australia and New Zealand and results for a midlevel trial are due in the middle of this year.
Price has announced he will divest his investments in Innate and other health companies if confirmed.
Representatives for Price and Collins say they have not broken any rules.
