WASHINGTON—A New York Republican used his public office to benefit a biotechnology company in which he is a major investor and board member, according to a new report from a nonpartisan agency that investigates allegations of wrongdoing by members of Congress.

The Office of Congressional Ethics also said Rep. Chris Collins may have shared nonpublic information about Innate Immunotherapeutics Ltd. with other investors.

In a report released Thursday, the ethics office said it found “substantial reason” to believe both allegations and voted unanimously to send the case to the House Ethics Committee for further investigation. The office said the conduct may have violated federal law.

An attorney for Mr. Collins said in a letter to the office that the New York Republican “has done nothing improper” and praised his “cooperation and candor” with the investigation.

In its report, the Office of Congressional Ethics said Mr. Collins sent updates to investors about Innate drug trials that the company hadn’t yet made public and that he visited the National Institutes of Health to discuss the clinical trial of an Innate drug.


“If Rep. Collins shared material nonpublic information in the purchase of Innate stock, then he may have violated House rules, standards of conduct, and federal law,” the office wrote. Using public office to benefit a company is a violation of House ethics rules, the report said.

Mr. Collins, one of the closest allies of President Donald Trump in the House, is a former biotech entrepreneur and business executive. According to the congressman’s 2016 financial disclosure report, he held a stake in Innate valued at the time between $25 million and $50 million.

In a statement Thursday, Mr. Collins denied any wrongdoing and thanked congressional investigators for their work on the matter.

“Throughout my tenure in Congress I have followed all rules and ethical guidelines when it comes to my personal investments,“ he said. ”I was elected to Congress based upon my success in the private sector, and my willingness to use that experience every day to facilitate an environment that creates economic opportunity and jobs. I thank the House Ethics Committee for their meticulous review of this case and for the tough work they do to hold all Members of Congress accountable to the highest standards of conduct.”


Mr. Collins’s attorney said the congressman turned over 2,800 pages of documents and gave sworn testimony to investigators.

Results of Office of Congressional Ethics investigations are referred to the bipartisan House Ethics Committee for further investigation and potential disciplinary action, but aren’t formally sent to law enforcement agencies.

The Ethics Committee, which is evenly divided between Republican and Democratic members of Congress, voted in late August to extend its investigation into Mr. Collins and it remains ongoing. But the report from the Office of Congressional Ethics was made public for the first time on Thursday.

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It offers new details about Mr. Collins’s activities on behalf of Innate, whose shares plummeted in July after a midstage clinical trial for a multiple sclerosis drug didn’t show promise.


The report said that in several emails to investors, Mr. Collins provided the number of patients enrolled in clinical trials as well as the progress of those trials—all information the Office of Congressional Ethics said wasn’t provided to the public.

Mr. Collins told ethics investigators that the information he provided “was never anything really confidential” and was being included in company presentations to other pharmaceutical companies.

According to the report, in a separate November 2013 meeting, Mr. Collins traveled to the National Institutes of Health, where he tried to broker a meeting between Innate and NIH employees on issues related to a clinical trial for a multiple sclerosis drug.

Mr. Collins told ethics investigators that he went to NIH as a private citizen, not as a member of Congress, though he brought a legislative staffer with him and his congressional scheduler was involved in setting up the meeting, according to the report. Mr. Collins, the report said, described the visit to investigators as a “tour,” a “high school field trip,” and like going “to the Smithsonian.”