Joseph Edelman isn't known for donating to conservative causes, but HuffPost uncovered major donations to groups opposing trans rights.
By
Molly Redden
Oct 26, 2023, 02:19 PM EDT


Joseph Edelman, chief executive officer of Perceptive Advisors LLC, pauses during a Bloomberg Television interview in New York on Feb. 25, 2016.CHRIS GOODNEY/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES

Hedge fund CEO and billionaire biotech investor Joseph Edelman and his wife provided a $1 million donation to help launch Do No Harm, a new conservative advocacy group pushing anti-trans legislation in statehouses across the country, HuffPost has found.

Do No Harm bills itself as a group of doctors who are concerned about ideology influencing the medical profession. The organization has not disclosed its donors or fundraising, but tax filings for the Edelman Family Foundation, which Edelman founded and chairs with his wife Susan Lebovitz-Edelman, show that the foundation approved a $1 million donation to Do No Harm in 2022, the same year the activist group was founded.

In the year since, Do No Harm has hired lobbyists or sent advocates to half a dozen statehouses and provided the model language for at least two bills restricting gender-affirming care that have become law. The group has also filed a handful of lawsuits against efforts to promote diversity in medicine.

Edelman is founder and CEO of Perceptive Advisors, a New York-based biotech hedge fund with more than $8 billion in assets under management. His home is an oceanside Orange County mansion he purchased for a record-shattering $70 million after trading in his 10,000 square-foot Park Avenue penthouse. Forbes estimates his net worth to be $2.5 billion.

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