A Tory MP took part in a video conference with the Vaccines Minister and a company paying him more than £200-an-hour for advice just months before the firm won a £100,000 Covid contract.
Former Health Minister Steve Brine and Sigma Pharmaceuticals took part in the video meeting in February with Nadhim Zahawi, who was then the minister in charge of vaccines.
Mr Brine said the webinar that "gave the Vaccines Minister the chance to speak to and thank hundreds of pharmacists".
Although no lobbying took place at the virtual conference, which was posted online, two months later Sigma won a £100,000 contract to deliver lateral flow devices to pharmacies.
Since September 2020, Mr Brine has been paid £1,666 a month for up to eight hours working as a "strategic advisor" to Sigma - earning more than £200 an hour.
The Winchester MP told the Times that he was not a lobbyist and said he had no role in the award of the contract.
He makes at least £60,000 a year from outside jobs, alongside his £82,000 salary as an MP.
Bharat Shah, the founder of Sigma Pharmaceuticals, said Mr Brine "was not involved with or had any knowledge of" the lateral flow test contract.
It comes as the Government was battling to keep a lid on the growing row over allegations of Tory sleaze.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said MPs should not use their Commons office "for personal gain in any way" after claims emerged that Tory Sir Geoffrey Cox carried out his second job from Parliament.
The former Attorney General, who is a practising barrister, has been reported to the standards watchdog by Labour following reports he used his parliamentary office to advise the British Virgin Islands over a corruption probe launched by the Foreign Office.
Mr Javid refused to comment on the specific allegations but said use of taxpayer-funded resources for private work "should not be happening".
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "As a general rule, no-one should be using things that are being funded by the taxpayer, whether that is your parliamentary office or whatever else, for your personal gain in any way.
"As a general rule - and again I'm not talking about an individual case - someone might take a phone call or might use their own phone for a video meeting or something like that, but I think as a general rule, that should not be happening."
