Pfiz­er ex­ec de­nies vac­cine ne­go­ti­a­tions via text mes­sage in grilling be­fore Eu­ro­pean Par­lia­ment

Amid what one mem­ber of the Eu­ro­pean Par­lia­ment called “SMS-gate,” a Pfiz­er ex­ec­u­tive on Mon­day de­nied that the com­pa­ny’s vac­cine deal with the bloc could have been ne­go­ti­at­ed via text mes­sage.

The news comes months af­ter the Eu­ro­pean Om­buds­man con­demned the Com­mis­sion’s han­dling of re­quests for text mes­sages be­tween pres­i­dent Ur­su­la von der Leyen and Pfiz­er CEO Al­bert Bourla. The texts re­port­ed­ly led to Pfiz­er’s Eu­ro­pean deal for 1.8 bil­lion vac­cine dos­es, the New York Times re­port­ed last April. But up­on a pub­lic records re­quest, the Com­mis­sion said it hadn’t lo­cat­ed any of the al­leged texts.

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