Pfizer: Senior employee’s personal LinkedIn post about Covid-19 vaccine ruled promotional and discrediting (AUTH/3437/12/20)

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Key facts

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Case number	AUTH/3437/12/20
Company	Pfizer Ltd
Complaint	Alleged promotion of Covid-19 vaccine on LinkedIn via employees’ personal accounts (post and a ‘like’)
Platform	LinkedIn
Content at issue	Post praising achievement, stating “Covid Pfizer vaccine approved for use next week in the UK”, linking to BBC article with headline including “judged safe for use in UK”
Complainant	Concerned UK health professional
Key timing	Post made 2 December 2020; removed 10 December 2020
Regulatory status referenced	Temporary authorisation granted by MHRA under Regulation 174 on 2 December 2020; not a marketing authorisation
Linked article certified?	No (neither post nor linked article certified by Pfizer for UK distribution)
Panel view on audience	Employees’ contacts included health professionals and members of the public; ‘liking’ increases dissemination
Applicable Code year	2019
Clauses considered	26.1, 9.1, 2
Findings	No breach Clause 26.1; breach Clauses 9.1 and 2
Sanctions	Undertaking received; Additional sanctions; Advertisement
Complaint received	04 December 2020
Case completed	04 June 2021
Appeal	No appeal

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Reviewed by Dr Anzal Qurbain (FFPM) — ABPI Final Signatory

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What happened

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A UK health professional complained about alleged promotion of a Covid-19 vaccine on LinkedIn by Pfizer Ltd.
The complaint related to a named Pfizer UK employee’s personal LinkedIn account, featuring a post from a senior Pfizer UK executive.
The post showed an image of an injection and stated: “So proud of the whole Pfizer team. What an achievement #vaccines #proud”.
It also stated “Covid Pfizer vaccine approved for use next week in the UK” and linked to a BBC article titled “Covid-19: Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine judged safe for use in UK”.
The post was made on 2 December 2020 (the day the vaccine received temporary authorisation under Regulation 174) and was subsequently ‘liked’ by a second Pfizer colleague.
Neither the LinkedIn post nor the linked BBC article had been certified by Pfizer for distribution in the UK.
The senior employee had ~900 LinkedIn contacts (approx. 10% health professionals); the colleague who ‘liked’ it had ~500 contacts (approx. 5% health professionals). The Panel considered both networks included health professionals and members of the public.
Pfizer removed the post and linked article from LinkedIn on 10 December 2020 after receiving the complaint.
Pfizer cited its UK Social Media Policy (01-Dec-2019) which instructed colleagues to treat the audience as the general public and to avoid any direct/indirect reference to, or links to information about, licensed or unlicensed medicines; it also restricted ‘liking’/sharing third-party content if it referenced or linked to medicines.

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Outcome

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No breach of Clause 26.1.
Breach of Clause 9.1.
Breach of Clause 2.

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Key facts

What happened

Outcome

Clauses

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