US House panel seeks information from Pfizer over alleged COVID vaccine delay
By Ahmed Aboulenein and Michael Erman
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. lawmakers on Thursday asked Pfizer Inc for information on alleged comments by a former executive suggesting its research executives intentionally delayed clinical trial results of its COVID-19 vaccine to influence the 2020 presidential election.
The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee wrote in a letter to Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla that it is looking into the comments allegedly made by Philip Dormitzer, the company's former global head of vaccine research, who helped oversee development of the COVID shot during the first Trump administration. Dormitzer has said his comments were misinterpreted.
Pfizer, working with Germany's BioNTech, was the first drugmaker to show successful results for a COVID vaccine at the height of the pandemic. The company began to share its trial results on Nov. 9, 2020, just days after Joe Biden won the presidential election against President Donald Trump.
Pfizer has long denied any relation between the timing of its vaccine results announcement and the U.S. election. The alleged comments made by Dormitzer were first reported by the Wall Street Journal in March.
"My Pfizer colleagues and I did everything we could to get the FDA's Emergency Use Authorization at the very first possible moment. Any other interpretation of my comments about the pace of the vaccine's development would be incorrect," Dormitzer told Reuters in March.
Dormitzer left Pfizer for a new job at rival drugmaker GSK Plc in 2021. The judiciary committee said it had been informed by GSK that a "visibly upset" Dormitzer requested the company let him move to Canada in November 2024, shortly after Trump was re-elected. Dormitzer had told colleagues at GSK he feared being investigated by the new Trump administration, according to the committee's letter.
"GSK further informed the Committee that Dr. Dormitzer had told GSK employees that 'in late 2020, the three most senior people in Pfizer R&D were involved in a decision to deliberately slow down clinical testing so that it would not be complete prior to the results of the presidential election that year,'" the committee's letter to Bourla said.
"Dr. Dormitzer represented to GSK that Pfizer's CEO was not aware of the delay," the committee said in a press release.Pfizer spokesperson Amy Rose said the drugmaker had received the letter "asking about allegations made in a Wall Street Journal story, and we will respond directly to the Committee."
"The COVID-19 vaccine development process was driven by science and guided by the U.S. FDA back in 2020," said Rose. "Theories to the contrary are simply untrue and being manufactured."
The judiciary committee has sent a similar letter to Dormitzer seeking information about his alleged remarks and asking the scientist appear for an interview. He was not immediately available for comment. GSK declined to comment.
The Wall Street Journal said that GSK had reported Dormitzer's alleged comments to federal prosecutors in New York. The newspaper's report prompted the House committee to investigate the matter.
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