By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) – The U.S. state of Kansas sued Pfizer on Monday, accusing the company of misleading the public about its COVID-19 vaccine by hiding risks while making false claims about its effectiveness.
In a lawsuit filed in Thomas County District Court, the state said the New York-based drugmaker’s alleged misrepresentations violated the Kansas Consumer Protection Act. He is seeking unspecified monetary damages.
“Pfizer made multiple misleading statements to mislead the public about its vaccine at a time when Americans needed the truth,” Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican, said in a statement.
The lawsuit alleges that shortly after the vaccine’s launch in early 2021, Pfizer concealed evidence that the vaccine was linked to pregnancy complications, including miscarriage, as well as inflammation in and around the heart known as myocarditis and pericarditis. .
“The statements made by Pfizer about its COVID-19 vaccine were accurate and based on science,” Pfizer said in a statement, adding that it believes the lawsuit is without merit.
The US Food and Drug Administration in June 2021 added a warning about myocarditis and pericarditis to the vaccine label. Side effects are rare and occur most often in adolescents and young men.
A 2023 review of 21 studies by the US National Institutes of Health concluded that COVID vaccines were not associated with miscarriage.
Kansas also said Pfizer falsely claimed that its vaccine, which was developed with German partner BioNTech for the original strain of the virus, maintained high efficacy against mutant variants and would prevent not only disease but also transmission.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a similar lawsuit against Pfizer last year, which remains pending. Pfizer also found this case to be meritless.
Kobach said Monday that other states have been cooperating with Kansas in its investigation and are expected to file lawsuits as well.
BioNTech is not a defendant in the case.
(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)
