US prosecutors investigate tip about timing of Pfizer's Covid vaccine

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are probing a claim by GSK that Pfizer delayed announcing its Covid shot's success in 2020 until after that year's election, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. 

The report said on Wednesday GSK's former head of vaccine development, Philip Dormitzer, had told his colleagues about the delay by Pfizer, where he worked before joining the British company. 

However, Dormitzer has disputed the claims of his former colleagues. 

"My Pfizer colleagues and I did everything we could to get the FDA's Emergency Use Authorization at the very first possible moment. Any other interpretation of my comments about the pace of the vaccine's development would be incorrect," Dormitzer told Reuters. 

The WSJ report said the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, which includes Manhattan, is taking a closer look at GSK's claims. 

"We cannot comment because we have not received any inquiry from authorities about a so-called 'delay,' but Pfizer remains ready, willing, and able to explain why any allegation of impropriety is utter nonsense," Pfizer told Reuters. 

U.S. President Donald Trump has claimed in the past that Pfizer sat on positive data from the vaccine's clinical trials, but there was no evidence. 

"We have consistently and transparently reiterated the facts and the timeline of the tireless work of scientists, regulators, and thousands of clinical trial volunteers who made the vaccine possible. Theories to the contrary are simply untrue," Pfizer said.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan has interviewed at least two people, including a GSK executive who took notes of a conversation with Dormitzer, the report said. 

The prosecutors are planning more interviews in the coming days, the report said, adding that Pfizer officials have not yet been interviewed. 

GSK declined to comment, while the US Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comments.