The fine only equates to a mere 0.00005 percent of Pfizer’s 2021 revenues.
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer was slapped with a measly fine for promoting its Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) mRNA injection before it was even approved by British authorities.
Back in November 2020, Pfizer U.K. Medical Director Dr. Berkeley Phillips shared a post from a fellow employee on Twitter (now X) about the company’s COVID-19 injection. “Our vaccine candidate is 95 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 and 94 percent effective [in preventing COVID-19] in people over 65 years old,” the post stated. Four other Pfizer U.K. employees re-tweeted the same post, and an additional four also liked it.
But the tweet did not sit well with the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA), the self-regulatory body that oversees the pharmaceutical industry in the United Kingdom. The PMPCA administers the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry Code of Practice for the industry.
According to a panel convened by the PMPCA, the November 2020 tweet “clearly referred to the outcome of the Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine being developed to protect against COVID-19.” But as per the panel, Clause 3.1 of the code “prohibited the promotion of a medicine prior to the grant of its marketing authorization” – which was only given to the injection in December 2020.
The promotion of an unlicensed medicine or unauthorized indication is a criminal offense and can merit a penalty of either imprisonment for up to two years or a fine. True enough, Pfizer was slapped with the latter and ordered to pay £34,800 ($43,270) for the violation.
But this fine only equates to a mere 0.00005 percent of Pfizer’s 2021 revenues. The Daily Exposecontinued that this penalty “is much smaller than other, larger fines that have been issued to them over the years.” Given the billions of earnings the New York-based drug giant makes every year, such a penalty amounting to tens of thousands of dollars is merely spare change.
Nothing accidental about Pfizer’s blatant deception
Phillips later remarked that the social media post that merited the fine was “accidental and unintentional.” But looking at things deeper, there is nothing accidental and unintentional about Pfizer’s deception – most especially with regard to the COVID-19 injection.
(Related: Scientist says Pfizer INTENTIONALLY DECEIVED regulators about COVID-19 vaccine contamination.)
According to the Expose, Pfizer has already been reprimanded six times for its promotion of the COVID-19 vaccine. The £34,800 ($43,270) fine also follows Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla being found guilty in November 2022 of misleading British parents over the safety of the COVID-19 injection for children.
“People will be likely to need to have annual COVID-19 vaccinations for many years to come,” Bourla told the BBC, adding that such yearly injections would be necessary to maintain a “very high level of protection.”
The Pfizer CEO also mentioned that injecting British and European children with the COVID-19 vaccine would be a “very good idea.”
“COVID-19 in schools is thriving. This is disturbing; there are kids that will have severe symptoms. So there is no doubt in my mind that the benefits, completely, are in favor of doing it.”
The Expose ultimately remarked: “Since 2009, Pfizer has been found guilty of numerous offenses and fraudulent practices – including corruption and blackmail; spinning negative data to place it in a more positive light; negligence; failing to warn of drug risks; acting fraudulently with a blatant disregard for human lives and the law; [and] stalking and terrorizing whistleblowers and their families.”
“Pfizer’s actions have even been judged to be ‘highly unethical, harmful to science, wasteful of public resources and potentially dangerous to the public’s health.’ Yet over the years, ‘consequences’ for Pfizer have been minuscule compared to the massive profits they have earned.”
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