Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer may have delayed the announcement of its COVID-19 vaccine to influence the 2020 presidential election, according to evidence provided to a House committee this week.
On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee revealed that Pfizer’s Global Head of Vaccines Research and Development, Dr Philip Dormitzer, may have conspired to delay the results of the company’s research into its COVID-19 vaccine to affect the 2020 presidential election.
According to a letter provided to the committee by drugmaker GSK, Dormitzer apparently asked to be relocated from the US to Canada because he was worried he “could be investigated by the incoming Trump Administration over his role in developing Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.”
When Dormitzer was asked by a member of Pfizer’s HR team why he made the request, Dormitzer apparently said, “Let’s just say it wasn’t a coincidence, the timing of the vaccine.”
Pfizer broadcast the results of its vaccine trials five days after polls closed in the 2020 election.
The letter also claimed some of its employees were told by Dormitzer that “in late 2020, the three most senior people in Pfizer R&D were involved in a decision to deliberately slow down clinical testing so that it would not be complete prior to the results of the presidential election that year.”
On Thursday, the Judiciary Committee sent letters to Dormitzer and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla demanding all records showing data from the clinical trials or communications with public-health agencies.
“This new information appears to suggest that you and other senior Pfizer executives conspired to withhold public health information to influence the 2020 presidential election,” Jordan wrote to Dormitzer.
“Due to the seriousness of these allegations, the Committee is compelled to request additional information to inform our oversight.”
The panel has also demanded Dormitzer schedule an interview with them before 29 May.
Dormitzer has publicly denied that he or anyone else at Pfizer deliberately delayed the company’s vaccine, and said that his comments had been misinterpreted.