Joe Biden’s son-in-law, Howard Krein, has been informally advising the Democrat presidential nominee’s campaign on its coronavirus policy at the same time Krein’s venture capital business StartUp Health has been investing in health care startups that offer solutions to the pandemic, Politico reported on Tuesday.
Such a situation could spur accusations of conflict-of-interest for a Biden administration or at least create an awkward appearance of his son-in-law profiting off the adminstration’s policies.
Early on in the pandemic, StartUp Health announced a goal to invest a total of $1 million in 10 startups with coronavirus applications in order to build “a post-Covid world that uses technology and entrepreneurial ingenuity to improve health outcomes.”
The federal government has spent tens of billions of dollars in coronavirus-related testing and vaccine research on private firms since the start of the pandemic and is likely to spend billions more in the coming year.
Making matters more complicated for any Biden adminstration is that Krein's potential conflicts are not limited to this venture, as StartUp Health has invested in more than 300 health care businesses since its launch in 2011. Moreover, the company already enjoyed close ties in its early years to the Obama administration, with Krein described as a White House adviser.
StartUp Health and the Biden campaign declined to respond.
When asked about ethical safeguards in a Biden administration, a campaign official cited Biden’s statement last year that "I have never discussed, with my son or my brother or with anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses. Period. And what I will do is the same thing we did in our administration. There will be an absolute wall between personal and private [business interests] and the government.”
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.