Senators Wyden and Alsobrooks Press HHS Over Drug-Trial Betting Markets

Two Democratic senators formally asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday, Nov. 11, to address risks created by prediction markets that let traders bet on clinical trial outcomes and FDA drug approvals.

Sen. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon sent the letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., asking what steps the department has taken to limit risks from the contracts. The lawmakers flagged two specific concerns: the markets may influence patients deciding whether to enroll in clinical trials, and they create openings for insider trading by researchers or regulators who hold nonpublic information.

What are the senators worried about?

In the letter, Alsobrooks and Wyden warned that wagering on trial results and drug approvals could weaken the scientific process, create harmful incentives for researchers, harm trial participants and contribute to dangerous medical outcomes. They argued that HHS, the FDA and the National Institutes of Health share responsibility for protecting drug development and public trust through concrete safeguards.

The senators' document requests are broad. They asked for:

• Internal HHS communications about staff participation in prediction markets tied to matters the department governs
• Communications between HHS and the trading platforms offering the contracts
• Communications between HHS and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal regulator overseeing event contracts
• Any internal HHS analyses of the markets' potential effects

Which platforms are involved?

Kalshi and Polymarket both list contracts on clinical trials and FDA drug approvals. The regulatory postures differ sharply. Kalshi operates under CFTC oversight, while Polymarket's related markets run only on its international exchange, which is not regulated in the United States.

Kalshi launched its trial-related markets in July and paired the rollout with measures it said would limit trading risks. The company said the contracts would cover only late-stage trials, would be listed after enrollment was complete, and would use employee-verification technology to screen traders in those markets.

Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour framed the products as a way to make drug-development information more accessible. Spokesperson Jack Such pushed back on the senators' framing, saying their concerns apply equally to equities markets generally, where he argued the scale and incentives for misconduct are greater than on Kalshi.

Why does this matter beyond crypto?

The dispute sits at the intersection of two regulatory regimes. Event contracts fall under the CFTC's jurisdiction, while drug development, trial integrity and FDA approval processes sit with HHS and its agencies. The senators' letter effectively asks HHS to define its own role in policing conduct that a financial regulator does not typically monitor — such as a researcher trading on unblinded trial data.

The document requests also carry implicit pressure. If HHS staff communications show participation in markets touching department-governed matters, that could trigger ethics reviews or stricter internal rules. Communications with the CFTC, if they exist, would reveal whether the two agencies have coordinated on a segment that grew rapidly after Kalshi's July launch.

No deadline for HHS's response was specified in the letter, and the department has not publicly commented. Watch for whether HHS answers the records request, and whether the CFTC uses its event-contract authority to impose listing conditions on medical-outcome markets in the meantime.