Pfizer is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company based in New York City.
History
Following the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pfizer participated as a member of the COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition.[1]
In July 2020, Pfizer signed a $1.95 billion advance purchase agreement with the United States Department of Defense and United States Department of Health and Human Services through Operation Warp Speed "for large-scale production and nationwide delivery of 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in the United States following the vaccine’s successful manufacture and approval."[2][3]
In May 2021, Pfizer paid the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) a $2.8 million application fee for Emergency Use Authorization of its COVID-19 mRNA-based vaccine product, BNT162b2, developed by BioNTech.[4] Less than two months of safety data was available for BNT162b2 at the time of its authorization.[5]
On April 25, 2023, a former Pfizer employee named Frank Han filed a lawsuit against Pfizer alleging he had been fired in retaliation "for identifying potential Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) issues within the company."[6][7] The suit alleged that Pfizer spent "$168 million on [potentially influential government officials] in China between the second quarter of 2019 and the third quarter of 2021," along with $12 million in the United States, $11 million in Canada, $7.5 million in Russia and $7.1 million in the United Kingdom.[6:1]
On August 1, 2023, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla predicted that the FDA would authorize an "updated" version of its COVID-19 vaccine product by the end of August. He also said that the company was expecting "a new Covid wave to start in the U.S." in the fall.[8]
On April 23, 2024, Pfizer announced a $500,000 investment in Global Nexus, a public-private partnership at McMaster University, for the training of "emerging scholars from equity-deserving groups in the field of vaccinology, as well as students conducting vaccine research focused on populations who are especially vulnerable to infectious diseases."[9][10]
On June 17, 2024, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach filed a lawsuit against Pfizer for "misleading claims it made related to the COVID vaccine."[11] The suit was filed in the District Court of Thomas County.[12]
Organization
Pfizer is a partner organization of the World Economic Forum.[13] It is a member of the Alliance for a Stronger FDA,[14] the CARIN Alliance,[15] the COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition[1:1] and the Medical CBRN Defense Consortium.[16]
Funding
Pfizer has provided notable funding to:
- American Heart Association (AHA)[17]
- Chicago Urban League[17:1]
- Democratic Leadership Council (DLC)[18]
- Global Liver Institute (GLI)[19]
- Global Nexus[9:1][10:1]
- Humber River Health Foundation[20]
- Points of Light[21]
Publications
External links
Halamka, J., & Schnitzer, J. (2020, August). Delivering Impact and Value - COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition Members Report. COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition. https://web.archive.org/web/20200930090012/https://c19hcc.org/impact-report/ ↩︎ ↩︎
U.S. Government Engages Pfizer to Produce Millions of Doses of COVID-19 Vaccine. (2020, July 22). United States Department of Health and Human Services. https://web.archive.org/web/20201217220648/https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/07/22/us-government-engages-pfizer-produce-millions-doses-covid-19-vaccine.html ↩︎
Was the Pfizer vaccine part of the government’s Operation Warp Speed? (2020, November 10). The New York Times. http://archive.today/2021.12.27-005935/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/health/was-the-pfizer-vaccine-part-of-the-governments-operation-warp-speed.html ↩︎
Harkins, E. (2021, May 6). Re: BLA 125742 – COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine (BNT162/PF-07302048) – Part 1 of the Original Submission – Rolling Biologics License Application (BLA) – Request for Priority Review Designation. Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency; Pfizer Global Regulatory Affairs. https://web.archive.org/web/20230122214616/https://phmpt.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/125742_S1_M1_cover.pdf ↩︎
Gruber, M. F. (2020). Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for an unapproved product review memorandum: Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine/ BNT162b2. Food and Drug Administration. https://web.archive.org/web/20230803085800/https://www.fda.gov/media/144416/download ↩︎
Kansteiner, F. (2023, August 10). Pfizer faces whistleblower lawsuit from former compliance manager who says he flagged possible fraud in China. Fierce Pharma. https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/pfizer-faces-employee-lawsuit-after-whistleblower-raises-flag-possible-bribery-china ↩︎ ↩︎
Han v. Pfizer - Complaint for Damages. (2023, April 25). Wall Street Journal; Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco. https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/han-v-pfizer-04-25-2023.pdf ↩︎
Lovelace Jr., B. (2023, August 1). Updated Covid boosters could be authorized by end of month, Pfizer says. NBC News. http://archive.today/2023.08.03-034741/https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/updated-covid-boosters-authorized-end-month-pfizer-says-rcna97531 ↩︎
Pfizer Canada Inc. (2024, April 23). Pfizer Canada and McMaster University to foster health equity in vaccine science. Cision Newswire. http://archive.today/2024.04.23-183907/https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/pfizer-canada-and-mcmaster-university-to-foster-health-equity-in-vaccine-science-861273714.html ↩︎ ↩︎
Advancing Equitable and Inclusive Vaccine Science. The Global Nexus for Pandemics & Biological Threats. Retrieved April 23, 2024, from http://archive.today/2024.04.23-201816/https://globalnexus.mcmaster.ca/advancing-equitable-and-inclusive-vaccine-science/ ↩︎ ↩︎
Kansas AG sues Pfizer for misleading Kansans on COVID vaccine. (2024, June 17). Kansas Attorney General’s Office. https://web.archive.org/web/20240809151036/https://ag.ks.gov/media-center/news-releases/2024/06/18/kansas-ag-sues-pfizer-for-misleading-kansans-on-covid-vaccine ↩︎
Pierson, B. (2024, June 17). Kansas accuses Pfizer of misleading public about COVID vaccine in lawsuit. Reuters. http://archive.today/2024.06.25-125631/https://www.reuters.com/legal/kansas-accuses-pfizer-misleading-public-about-covid-vaccine-lawsuit-2024-06-17/ ↩︎
Pfizer. World Economic Forum. Retrieved March 14, 2023, from http://archive.today/2022.03.14-092916/https://www.weforum.org/organizations/pfizer ↩︎
List of Members. (2022, March 4). Alliance for a Stronger FDA. http://archive.today/2022.07.08-045902/https://www.strengthenfda.org/members ↩︎
CARIN Board & Participants. CARIN Alliance. Retrieved September 27, 2022, from https://web.archive.org/web/20220927010216/https://www.carinalliance.com/our-membership/carin-board-participants/ ↩︎
Current Members. MCDC. Retrieved January 3, 2023, from http://archive.today/2023.01.03-195328/https://www.medcbrn.org/current-members/ ↩︎
US Medical, Scientific, Patient and Civic Organization Funding Report: Q1-Q2 2021. (2021, September 27). Pfizer. https://web.archive.org/web/20230503211316/https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23787007/pfizer-2021-report.pdf ↩︎ ↩︎
Dreyfuss, R. (2001, December 19). How the DLC Does It. The American Prospect. https://web.archive.org/web/20240419104100/https://prospect.org/features/dlc/ ↩︎
Who We Are. Global Liver Institute. Retrieved July 10, 2023, from https://web.archive.org/web/20230710042334/https://globalliver.org/who-we-are/ ↩︎
New Donations. Humber River Hospital Foundation. Retrieved August 8, 2020, from https://web.archive.org/web/20200808051540/https://www.hrhfoundation.ca/our-thanks/new-donations/ ↩︎
Points of Light: Annual Report 2021. Issuu. Retrieved November 23, 2022, from https://web.archive.org/web/20221123221743/https://issuu.com/pointsoflight/docs/2022_annualreport2021_v3_singles/30 ↩︎
