pharma

Pfizer CEO 'Cautiously Optimistic' As RFK Jr. Advances In Senate

 

Image from an Independent Medical Alliance commercial

As longtime anti-vaccine crusader Robert F. Kennedy Jr. passed a key milestone Tuesday morning on his way to becoming head of the U.S. department of Health & Human Services, two targets of his wrath -- leading vaccine marketers Pfizer and Merck -- were coincidentally putting their best faces forward with Q4 earnings calls.

Pfizer’s call got underway mere minutes after the Senate Finance Committee approved RFJ Jr.’s nomination, with CEO Albert Bourla telling analysts that RFK Jr.’s  confirmation by the full Senate“ is pretty much secure right now.”

But, Bourla said in response to a question from Evan Seigerman of BMO Capital Markets, he’s “cautiously optimistic” about the future because Kennedy had “tampered” his views on vaccines during last week’s hearings. And, Bourla added, he sees “a lot of opportunities that probably outweigh the risks” with the Trump administration, citing in particular working together on cancer treatments “which is something that is very, very high in the mind of the president, and also very high in the mind of Mr. Kennedy.”

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Then, pressed by David Reed Risinger of Leerink Partners about Kennedy’s “ability as HHS secretary to remove U.S. vaccine liability protections” which provide pharma firms with “the freedom to develop and sell vaccines that save lives,” Bourla said Kennedy wouldn’t have the power to do that since "it would require Senate approval.”

Nonetheless, “they [Trump, Kennedy] don't want to see a reduction in vaccination because that's a very cost-effective way of controlling healthcare costs,” which he said is what the Trump administration wants.

Furthermore, Bourla said, “if he [Kennedy] tries to do some of the things that he said in the past,” he would face strong opposition by “the total medical community, the total scientific community and payers.”

Risinger also brought up Kennedy's “history of suing manufacturers” in the vaccine field.

Merck, the subject of a still-active lawsuit backed by RFK Jr., held its own call earlier in the morning.  And while Gardasil, its HPV vaccine that’s the object of the suit, was the subject of much discussion -- and with Kennedy' telling Senators last week that he would turn over his financial stake in the case to his son -- that aspect of the drug’s activities wasn’t raised during the call.

Incidentally, Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana doctor pro-vaccine Republican who had strongly questioned Kennedy during last week’s hearings but backed him this morning, was on the receiving end of a massive grassroots campaign this weekend from the IMA Action, the advocacy arm of nonprofit Independent Medical Alliance, which calls itself “the nation’s leading organization of front-line healthcare providers.”

IMA said it contacted more than 100,000 Louisiana families, “helping constituents connect with Senator Cassidy’s state offices to express their views.”

The group last week also launched a TV commercial running in nine states and Washington D.C,, which urged viewers to “call your Senator to confirm RFK for HHS.” IMA did not respond to Marketing Daily’s request for a list of the nine states.

IMA, formed as the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance in March 2020 and renamed last month, “has advocated for various unapproved, dubious, and ineffective treatments for COVID-19,” per Wikipedia, with the medical board certifications of its two founders revoked this past August.

The group is also referred to as “Frontline Docs,”  not to be confused with the “Frontline” documentary series on PBS.

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