Federal prosecutors are investigating a claim that the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer delayed announcing the success of its COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic until after the 2020 election.
Soon after President Donald Trump was reelected in November, British drugmaker GSK told federal prosecutors in Manhattan that one of its scientists, who used to work at Pfizer, made the allegation, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. It isn’t known what potential violations could be in play.
The scientist now disputes what he told his GSK colleagues, but federal prosecutors in Manhattan are taking a closer look at what GSK shared with them, which could be politically explosive. Trump has claimed for years that Pfizer sat on the positive results of clinical trials, which could have reflected well on his management of the response to the pandemic.
There is no evidence to support the accusation, the Journal reported, and the development of the COVID-19 vaccines is widely viewed as a medical breakthrough, being developed faster than any other vaccine.
The scientist, Phil Dormitzer, 61, led Pfizer’s viral vaccine research and development before moving to GSK in 2021. He has since left GSK, and his attorney is among those who have spoken to prosecutors, according to the Journal. Prosecutors asked Dormitzer about what he said to GSK executives in late 2024 about what happened at Pfizer in 2020.
Dormitzer, as head of Pfizer’s viral vaccine research and development in 2018, helped forge a partnership with Germany’s BioNTech to develop shots for influenza using mRNA technology, according to the Journal.
In early 2020, when BioNTech’s co-founder called Dormitzer to say his company hoped to produce a COVID-19 vaccine, Dormitzer was at first skeptical and believed the coronavirus could dissipate but later became a proponent of the effort.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan has interviewed at least two people in connection with the allegation, including a GSK executive who took notes of a conversation with Dormitzer, according to the Journal. Prosecutors are planning to interview a third person in the coming days, but Pfizer representatives haven’t been interviewed.
Pfizer told the Journal it hadn’t received any inquiries from prosecutors. It said the vaccine development was driven by science and guided by the Food and Drug Administration, and that the “tireless work of scientists, regulators, and thousands of clinical trial volunteers” made the vaccine possible.
“Pfizer remains ready, willing, and able to explain why any allegation of impropriety is utter nonsense,” the company said.
Dormitzer spent nearly two decades in vaccine research at drug companies after working in academia, according to the Journal. He helped develop Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine and was among company scientists who appeared in the media discussing the shot and the pandemic.
In a statement to the Journal, Dormitzer said that Pfizer moved rapidly to get the vaccine approved and that he didn’t tell his GSK colleagues otherwise.
“My Pfizer colleagues and I did everything we could to get the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization at the very first possible moment,” he said. “Any other interpretation of my comments about the pace of the vaccine’s development would be incorrect.”
GSK declined to comment to the Journal on the investigation. It said that Dormitzer — who for three years led its vaccine research and development after a six-year stay at Pfizer — left for “reasons unrelated to GSK.”
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.