U.S. Prosecutors Probe Tip About Timing of Pfizer Vaccine

quote:

---

Soon after President Trump won the presidential election in November, British drugmaker GSK brought an unusual claim to federal prosecutors in Manhattan, according to people familiar with the matter.

A senior GSK scientist, who formerly worked at rival Pfizer, had told GSK colleagues that Pfizer delayed announcing the success of its Covid vaccine in 2020 until after that year’s election.

The scientist disputes that account of what he told colleagues. But prosecutors are taking a closer look at what GSK shared with them, which is potentially politically explosive. Trump for years has claimed that Pfizer sat on the positive results of clinical trials, which could have reflected well on his management of the pandemic and reassured voters as they headed to the polls.

---

quote:

---

The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan has interviewed at least two people in connection with the allegation, including a GSK executive who took notes of a conversation with the former Pfizer scientist, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.

The scientist, Phil Dormitzer, led Pfizer’s viral vaccine research and development before moving to GSK in 2021. He has since left GSK, and his attorney is among those who have spoken to prosecutors.

---

quote:

---

It isn’t clear what potential violations could be at issue. The prosecutors’ inquiry into GSK’s information, related to the oft-repeated Trump accusation, comes as the Justice Department also has opened a range of investigations into Trump’s perceived detractors in recent months, including a new investigation into the 2020 election.

---

quote:

---

Over the past year, Pfizer executives including Chief Executive Albert Bourla have sought to build a relationship with Trump, attending fundraising dinners and hosting a C-suite retreat to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club after the 2024 election, as they have in the past.

Trump has personally asked Bourla whether the vaccine was delayed, which Bourla denied, according to people familiar with the conversations.

---

quote:

---

The review of the Pfizer vaccine’s effectiveness and safety was performed by an outside panel of independent experts known as a data-safety monitoring committee, which then shared its findings with Pfizer and partner BioNTech. Pfizer filmed and broadcast the moment executives learned the results from Pfizer’s senior scientists, on Nov. 8.

By then, Trump had lost the election. Joe Biden was declared the winner of the contest on Nov. 7. Two days later, Pfizer said an early analysis showed its vaccine to work safely in protecting people from Covid-19.

Just after midnight on Nov. 10, Trump posted on social media: “As I have long said, @Pfizer and the others would only announce a Vaccine after the Election, because they didn’t have the courage to do it before.”

---