Big Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has “deeply” apologized for promoting an “unlicensed” coronavirus vaccine, after being rebuked for the fifth time by state regulators. The move earned the firm another reprimand from the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) in the United Kingdom.
The British government regulator found Pfizer had “proactively disseminated” an “unlicensed medicine” on Twitter, now X, in November 2020 while providing no information on its safety or adverse side effects.
Berkeley Phillips, medical director of Pfizer UK, shared a message from a Pfizer employee in the U.S. promoting their “vaccine candidate” as “95 percent effective in preventing Covid-19, and 94 percent effective in people over 65 years old.”
Four other Pfizer employees, one described as “senior,” also shared the message. In addition to taking issue with the lack of information on safety and side effects, the PMCPA said the information on the vaccine’s usefulness was “limited.”
Pfizer said it “fully recognizes and accepts the issues highlighted by this PMCPA ruling” and is “deeply sorry.”
Despite formally taking responsibility for the debacle, a Pifizer spokesman attempted to shift the lion’s share of the blame to individual employees.
“Pfizer UK has a comprehensive policy on personal use of social media in relation to Pfizer’s business which prohibits colleagues from interacting with any social media related to Pfizer’s medicines and vaccines — backed by staff briefings and training,” the spokesman said.
“The personal use of social media by UK pharmaceutical industry employees in relation to company business is a challenging area for pharmaceutical companies,” they added.
