Pfizer “Discredited Industry” By Promoting “Unlicensed” Vaccine

Pharma giant Pfizer has been accused of “bringing discredit” on the pharmaceutical industry by UsForThem, a UK pharmaceutical watchdog group, for using social media to promote an “unlicensed” Covid injection many have called a “vaccine.”

UsForThem filed a complaint with The Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) which is an independent, self-regulatory body established by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.

The complaint took issue with tweets that were sent out by senior Pfizer executives, including U.K. Medical Director Berkeley Phillips. The tweets were still visible on social media when the complaint was filed.

The regulatory board has ruled, however, that Pfizer breached five rules in its Code of Practice for advertising, a significant number by any measure.

The breaches include making misleading claims about their product, failing to maintain high standards and promoting unlicensed medicines.

The group alleges that Pfizer’s employees social media presence qualified as “misbehavior” and was “even more widespread” than originally thought as it “extended right to the top of their UK operation.”

At the epicenter of it all are allegations that Pfizer “misleadingly and illegally promoted its COVID-19 vaccine” by reporting very high relative efficacy rates without providing information about absolute efficacy rates or required information about safety.

Anything for a large lump sum of money I guess, which really isn’t anything new for Pfizer who has a long track record of profiteering which was made explicitly clear during the global “pandemic” of 2020. The question we have to ask ourselves today is, who empowered them in government?

A tweet included in the complaint by UsForThem to the regulatory board was by the medical director of Pfizer’s operation in the UK, Dr. Berkeley Philips, who shared the contents of a tweet by another Pfizer employee in the U.S.who posted:

“Our vaccine candidate is 95% effective in preventing COVID-19, and 94% 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.”

The PMCPA investigatory panel found four other Pfizer U.K. employees had re-tweeted the same post and others had “liked” it. They said it was likely that members of the public and health professionals would have seen the tweet.

This social media posting contained “limited” information about the injection’s efficacy, according to the watchdog and the regulatory panel, as it dearly neglected any mention of adverse reactions or safety information.

The ruling also stated how this particular social media posting resulted in “unlicensed medicine being proactively disseminated on Twitter to health professions and members of the public in the UK.”

Not only did Pfizer break regulatory code but its employees also broke company policy, it really can’t get much worse for a big pharma company than that!

A Pfizer UK spokesman said that the company was “deeply sorry” and “fully recognizes and accepts the issues highlighted by the PMCPA ruling,” according to the Telegraph.

The pharmaceutical company says it has launched a review of its employees usage of social media to ensure compliance with their rules and regulatory code.

Dr. Philips says the social media postings were “accidental and unintentional.”

“We immediately accepted the case ruling and do everything we can to ensure that our employees adhere to our strict social media policy and the industry Code of Practice when using their personal social media.”

This isn’t the first time Pfizer was reprimanded by the PMCPA, however, as it has faced six other reprimands for its unethical promotion of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Just a few days after it ruled on the 2020 tweets promoting the vaccine, the PMCPA announced a second ruling that found Pfizer had breached another clause in the code of conduct thanks to a tweet sent out by Pfizer UK in 2022 which “failed to maintain professional standards.”

That ruling, also issued in response to a complaint filed by UsForThem, pertained to a series of three tweets posted on Pfizer UK’s Twitter feed that included a link to a Pulse Today article.

Furthermore, the PMCPA ruled that Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla, Ph.D., made “misleading” and “unqualified” comments in a BBC interview when he promoted Pfizer’s COVID-19 mRNA vaccines for young children.

And finally, the regulatory board made two additional rulings on Pfizer related to claims made in a press release, as well as some LinkedIn posts.

The Telegraph reported that the penalty for these breaches was a fine of 34,800 pounds.

“It’s astonishing how many times Pfizer’s senior executives have been found guilty of serious regulatory offences — in this case including the most serious offence of all under the UK Code of Practice,” said Ben Kingsley, head of legal affairs at UsForThem.

“Yet the consequences for Pfizer and the individuals concerned continue to be derisory. This hopeless system of regulation for a multi-billion dollar life and death industry has become a sham, in dire need of reform,” Kingsley told the Telegraph.

Pfizer is currently planning on using data from a clinical trial it concluded last month to seek expanded approval of its RSV vaccine, Abrysvo, for all adults ages 18 and up and has also stated that it has begun trials for the drug in children ages 2-18!

Just as with government, having a healthy level of skepticism with those in big pharma would be wise on our part, especially after they have proven to continually pursue their own interests above that of what is good for society.

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