WASHINGTON – Rep. Chris Collins, three-term Republican from western New York, denied Tuesday he’s breached any ethics rules because colleagues and friends invested in an Australian medical biotech company in which he serves on the board of directors.

“Despite the continued partisan attacks insinuating otherwise, Congressman Collins has followed all ethical guidelines related to his personal finances during his time in the House and will continue to do so.” his office said in a statement.

The Buffalo News, quoting unnamed sources, reported Tuesday investigators from the Office of Congressional Ethics interviewed several investors in Innate Immunotherapeutics to determine if Collins may have stepped over the line in persuading them to buy stock in the company.

Among the investors last August at a private discount stock sale was then-Congressman Tom Price from Georgia. He was appointed earlier this year as secretary of U.S. Health and Human Services. The Buffalo News said Price invested “upwards of $100,000” in Innate.

The paper said Collins has been an Innate investor for 15 years, and bought another 4 million shares in the private stock sale two days before Price made his investment. The paper said Collins is the largest stockholder in the company.

Complaints on file with the ethics office have raised questions about Collins’ involvement last year in passing the 21^st Century Cures Act, a law that speeds up drug trials and could potentially help Innate, a company that designs cutting edge technology for vaccines to fight cancer and infections and treat autoimmune diseases like Multiple Sclerosis.

Veteran Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, D-N. Y., also filed with the ethics office a copy of a complaint she submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission in January questioning a stock tip she said Collins gave to Price.

Slaughter is the author of a law designed to prevent insider stock trading among members of Congress.

“As well-positioned members of the House, both Congressman Collins and Price may have had non-public information about the prospects for the (drug trials) bill that would be relevant to the pharmaceutical industry,” Slaughter wrote.

Additionally, The Buffalo News reported, Collins was overheard by reporters bragging in a cellphone call off the House floor earlier this year about “how many millionaires I’ve made in Buffalo the past few months.”

Collins spokesman Michael Kracker said the congressmen did nothing improper in connection with Innate. He said Collins got involved with the company due to its research into a treatment for Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis, a fatal disease that Kracker said affected a close family member of the congressman.

The Office of Congressional Ethics was established in 2008 to review possible ethics violations. It has limited investigative powers but if it finds reasons to believe an ethical violation occurred, it can refer its findings to the House Committee on Ethics for further inquiry and possible disciplinary action.