Pfizer exec says CEO did not negotiate EU COVID vaccine contract via text message

Article content

FRANKFURT — A Pfizer executive with a lead role in negotiating a COVID-19 vaccine bulk supply agreement with the European Commission said she “categorically” rules out that the U.S. drugmaker’s chief executive agreed the contract via mobile phone text messages.

“As to whether a contract negotiation such as this contract which you referred to, 1.8 billion doses, was negotiated through an SMS, I can categorically tell you that would not be the case,” Janine Small, president of international developed markets at Pfizer, told the European Parliament’s special committee on COVID-19 on Monday.

Article content

She added that such talks involve far too many people on both sides and take far too long to be conducted via mobile phone texts. (Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Jan Harvey)