The Republican congressman tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to head the U.S. Health and Human Services Department received a "sweetheart deal" last year to invest in a small Australian drug company along with another GOP lawmaker, a new report Friday says.

Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, who is scheduled to begin Senate confirmation hearings for his nomination for HHS secretary next week, and Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., bought a total of nearly $1 million in discounted shares of Innate Immunotherapeutics last summer in a private placement offering by the company to "sophisticated U.S. investors," according to the Kaiser Health News report.

Price already has seen a paper gain on his investment in the company of about 400 percent, according to the report, which noted that Price himself bought between $50,000 and $100,000 in the private placement.

Collins, who along with Price sits on House committees that oversee issues that could affect Innate Immunotherapeutics' fortunes in the U.S., invested $720,000 in that placement. Collins also sits on the company's board.

The report, citing company documents, said that Price and Collins, "paid 18 cents a share for a stake in a company that was rapidly escalating in value, rising to more than 90 cents as the company promoted an aggressive plan to sell to a major pharmaceutical company."

"Analysts said the stock price could go to $2," according to Kaiser Health News' story, which noted that such a scenario would make Price's share of stock in the company worth up to between $550,000 and $1.1 million.

Their separate stock purchases in the company last summer were made at a 12 percent discount to the company's market price at that time, according to the story.