Old COVID tweet lands Pfizer in new trouble with PMCPA

Pfizer has been found to be in breach of the UK pharma industry's code of practice with posts on Twitter (now X), dating back to 2020, that concerned its COVID-19 vaccine.

The Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) investigated a complaint raised by a member of the public over the tweets, which claimed that they promoted an unlicensed medicine and made misleading claims.

Subsequently, the same person alleged that Pfizer had not complied with pledges not to undertake this type of activity raised in three earlier complaints about non-compliant promotion of their COVID-19 shot, which was cleared for emergency use in the UK in December 2020.

The thread of four tweets by Pfizer UK, which was then re-tweeted by a senior figure in the company and liked and re-tweeted by several other employees, concerned the outcome of a phase 3 trial of the vaccine and appeared on the social media platform in November 2020.

Along with promotion of an unlicensed medicine, the alleged problems with the thread included the provision of misleading efficacy information and claims that did not reflect the available evidence and breach of Pfizer's undertaking in the earlier case.

At the time the tweets were posted, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) did not include specific social media guidance in its code – that was introduced in 2023 – but the PMCPA concluded that the breaches came under the general principles of its then policy.

Pfizer had defended the tweets, saying they were "non-promotional, accurate, [and] presented in a factual and balanced manner."

However, in its ruling published this week, the PMCPA said it considered them to be promotional, given that they included statements like "…Phase 3 study of our #COVID19 vaccine candidate has met all primary efficacy endpoints", and "potential vaccine candidate demonstrating 95% efficacy."

Notably, it took issue with a statement made in linked content published by BioNTech, Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine partner, showing the perils that can come when companies connect social media posts to external source matter. That read: "…a high rate of protection against #COVID19 can be achieved very fast."

The PMCPA also agreed with the complainant that Pfizer had not taken all possible steps to avoid similar breaches in its earlier undertaking, concluding the company had breached no fewer than eight clauses in the ABPI code, including "bringing discredit upon, and reducing confidence in, the pharmaceutical industry."