The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, facing a major anti-discrimination lawsuit, has changed the requirements for one of its fellowship programs that previously barred any White candidates from applying.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, civil rights lawyers representing the medical advocacy group Do No Harm filed suit against Pfizer last September over the company’s “Breakthrough Fellowship,” which required its applicants to be either black, Hispanic, or Native American.
Some time between February 14th and February 18th, the fellowship’s website was altered to drop the racial requirement, with the guidelines now clearly stating that “you are eligible to apply for the Breakthrough Fellowship Program regardless of whether you are of black/African American, Latino/Hispanic, or Native American descent.” Instead, the website says, applicants now simply must have a “dedicated commitment” to “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
Do No Harm’s lawsuit was originally dismissed by a federal judge in December, on the basis that the plaintiffs allegedly lacked standing. The group then filed an appeal on January 4th.
“This significant change was made only after Do No Harm’s lawsuit, and only because Pfizer knows its fellowship is in jeopardy on appeal,” said Do No harm chairman Stanley Goldfarb. “Do No Harm is pleased that Pfizer recognizes its blatant racial discrimination is unlawful and immoral.”
Pfizer’s failed fellowship is just one of many examples of major corporations implementing race-based initiatives and policies that disproportionately impact White workers, while artificially boosting minorities; other companies facing similar lawsuits include Amazon and Starbucks. Virtually all major corporations began openly expressing support for far-left racial movements such as the Black Lives Matter riots in 2020, often voicing their “solidarity” with such groups on social media and in subsequent revisions of hiring policies.
Pfizer in particular has come under greater scrutiny in recent years due to being the company responsible for producing one of the three official COVID-19 vaccines, along with Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.