Kansas Sues Pfizer Over Covid-19 Vaccine’s Safety, Efficacy

Kansas on Monday sued Pfizer Inc., accusing the pharmaceutical giant of misrepresenting the safety of its Covid-19 vaccine and violating the state’s consumer protection law.

The lawsuit was filed by state Attorney General Kris Kobach in Kansas District Court, Thomas County. The suit alleges the drugmaker misled the public when it said it had a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine.

Pfizer said its vaccine would prevent the transmission of Covid-19, even though the company knew it never studied the effect of its vaccine on transmission of the virus, according to the lawsuit.

“Pfizer said its COVID-19 vaccine was safe even though it knew its COVID-19 vaccine was connected to serious adverse events, including myocarditis and pericarditis, failed pregnancies, and deaths,” the state wrote in the complaint.

Pfizer’s actions and statements relating to its Covid-19 vaccine violated the Kansas Consumer Protection Act, regardless of whether any individual consumer ultimately received Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, the complaint said.

The company administered more than 3.5 million vaccine doses in Kansas as of Feb. 7, 2024, according to the lawsuit.

The complaint also said Pfizer maintained its own adverse events database, separate from the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a national early warning system managed by the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to detect possible safety problems in US-licensed vaccines.

Pfizer’s database contained cases of adverse events reported spontaneously to Pfizer, cases reported by the health authorities, and cases published in the medical literature, according to the suit.

“Upon information and belief, Pfizer’s adverse events database contained more adverse event data than VAERS because it included both information in VAERS and information not in VAERS,” Kobach wrote.

Pfizer in an email statement said “the representations made by Pfizer about its COVID-19 vaccine have been accurate and science-based” and the company “believes that the state’s case has no merit and will respond to the suit in due course.”

“Since its initial authorization by FDA in December 2020, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has been administered to more than 1.5 billion people, demonstrated a favorable safety profile in all age groups, and helped protect against severe COVID-19 outcomes, including hospitalization and death,” the company said.

The state seeks damages for Pfizer’s violations of the Kansas Consumer Protection Act and asks the court to order Pfizer to pay civil penalties for alleged violations of previous consent orders with the state.

The case is Kansas v. Pfizer Inc., Kan. Dist. Ct., No. unavailable, 6/17/24.