The UK's pharmaceutical watchdog has accused Pfizer of damaging the industry's reputation after senior executives promoted an “unlicensed” Covid vaccine on social media.
The company has been found guilty of breaching the regulatory code on five counts, which include making misleading claims, failing to uphold high standards, and promoting unlicensed medicines.
The ruling by the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) pertains to a complaint regarding a message posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, in November 2020 by senior Pfizer employees.
The complaint expressed concern about Pfizer's “misuse of social media to misleadingly and illegally promote their Covid vaccine,” as stated in the ruling.
The complainants alleged that such “misbehavior” on social media was more widespread than initially believed and extended to the highest levels of Pfizer's UK operation.
The complaint revolved around a social media post on X by Dr. Berkeley Phillips, Pfizer UK's medical director. He shared a post from a Pfizer employee in the US, stating: “Our vaccine candidate is 95 per cent effective in preventing Covid-19, and 94 per cent effective in people over 65 years old. We will file all of our data with health authorities within days. Thank you to every volunteer in our trial, and to all who are tirelessly fighting this pandemic.”
Four other Pfizer employees, including one senior colleague, posted the same message on social media.
The PMCPA ruling observed that this message provided “limited” information about the vaccine's efficacy, lacked safety information, and made no mention of adverse events. The ruling stated that the social media post led to the proactive dissemination of an “unlicensed medicine” on Twitter to both healthcare professionals and the general public in the UK.
As a response to the ruling, Pfizer stated that it had initiated a review into its employees' use of social media platforms to ensure compliance with both internal company rules and the regulatory code.
This marks the sixth time Pfizer has been reprimanded by the regulator over its promotion of the Covid-19 vaccine.
