The FDA announced this week it is moving to approve leucovorin calcium for children with cerebral folate deficiency, a condition that can include symptoms overlapping with autism. The move is historic: for the first time, a drug will be formally recognized as addressing autism-related symptoms.
Because more than half of America’s children are covered by Medicaid and CHIP, the approval means that state Medicaid programs, in partnership with CMS, will be on the hook to cover prescriptions nationwide. That’s not just a scientific milestone—it’s a massive financial windfall for whoever profits from the drug.
And here’s where the story takes a troubling turn.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the controversial TV doctor turned Trump-era health official, is a global advisor to iHerb—a massive supplement retailer where he also holds millions in stock. And iHerb happens to sell folinic acid (the supplement form of leucovorin) on its site right now. While over-the-counter folinic acid is not identical to the prescription-strength leucovorin being approved by the FDA, the overlap is unmistakable: the same compound, the same biology, and the same commercial ecosystem.
That creates, at minimum, a glaring appearance of conflict of interest. A government health advisor with a multimillion-dollar stake in a company profiting from a compound now being boosted by FDA action is not just a coincidence—it’s the kind of revolving-door entanglement that undermines public trust.
Whether or not Oz directly benefits from the prescription side of leucovorin sales, the optics are plain: government approval drives demand, demand drives awareness, and awareness drives sales—for both prescription and supplement versions.
The FDA may be acting on science. But when the science collides with a celebrity doctor’s financial stake, it raises a question we can’t ignore: Whose interests are really being served?
