Vaccine Lobbyists Deny Calling RFK Jr. ‘Direct Threat to Public Health,’ Declare Support for MAHA

A leading biotech industry trade group denied any knowledge of a document purportedly containing the minutes of an April 3 meeting during which they criticized Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

Editor’s note: The Defender was unable to authenticate the April 3 BIO meeting minutes document or communicate directly with its source. However, our writing and editorial team spoke directly with James Lyons-Weiler and, on the basis of that conversation, judged the document likely to have originated from a reliable source.

A leading biotech industry trade group denied any knowledge of a document purportedly containing the minutes of an April 3 meeting of its Vaccine Policy Steering Committee (VPSC) during which members discussed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “anti-vaccine stance” and called him a “direct threat to public health.”

Research scientist and author James Lyons-Weiler, Ph.D., first went public with the document on Tuesday, publishing it on Substack and in an article for the Brownstone Institute. He said he received it “anonymously by whistleblowers.”

In a statement provided to The Defender on Tuesday, a Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) spokesperson said:

“Earlier today, a blog site posted an article based upon what it claimed is a leaked memo from BIO regarding our Vaccines Task Force. The purported memo was not produced by BIO. We have never seen or heard of this document and it certainly does not accurately represent the spirit, strategy, or mission of BIO’s work.

“We are aligned with Secretary Kennedy and the President’s mission to ‘Make America Healthy Again.’”

However, that statement contradicts the meeting minutes, which quote Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a Pfizer board member, as saying, “MAHA [Make America Healthy Again] is a cover for an anti-vaccine campaign.”

A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson told The Defender:

“Secretary Kennedy is not anti-vaccine — he is pro-safety, pro-transparency, and pro-accountability. His longstanding advocacy has focused on ensuring that vaccines and all medical interventions meet the highest standards of safety and are backed by gold-standard science.

“The fact that a prominent, taxpayer-funded lobbying organization like BIO would entertain language about ‘neutralizing’ a sitting Cabinet official, whose focus has been on restoring scientific rigor and prioritizing public health over special interests, is both concerning and revealing.”

According to the document circulated by Lyons-Weiler, BIO members discussed strategies to counter Kennedy’s growing “anti-vaccine rhetoric.”

These included engaging with other federal and state policymakers to sidestep Kennedy, repositioning vaccines as “national security assets,” and focusing public messaging “on science” and the “economic benefits” of vaccines.

Lyons-Weiler stands by document’s authenticity

Lyons-Weiler stood by the veracity of the document and his sources. Commenting on BIO’s statement that the group didn’t produce the document, he told The Defender:

“While it is exciting and reassuring to see BIO’s unreserved support for the MAHA initiative and the Kennedy evidence bar, we had sufficient information to determine to our satisfaction that the document was most likely real. Nevertheless, we ran it with caveats.

“In the interest of journalistic integrity, should evidence come forward that the document was in some way falsified, and was provided as some sort of ruse, we would be happy to publish that information as well, and let the public decide.”

On whether the document may have been leaked by “nefarious” actors, Lyons-Weiler said, “That is speculative, but one could only guess whether this would then perhaps represent a type of corporate espionage, with organizations which not so long ago left the trade association.”

“If so, it could be an attempt to divide BIO from the MAHA agenda at HHS,” Lyons-Weiler said. “Either way, I’m excited to see them ready to engage in objective and ethical biomedical research.”

In November 2024, Pharma giant GSK ended its membership with BIO. A GSK spokesperson told Fierce Pharma the company “opted not to renew its BIO membership for 2025 following an annual evaluation of its corporate memberships and trade association participation.”

GSK followed in the footsteps of other pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, UCB, WuXi AppTec and Takeda, who also recently left BIO, Fierce Pharma reported.

Vaccine makers raise investor concerns, but not vaccine safety concerns

AstraZeneca, Bayer, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Gilead Sciences, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Moderna, Novartis, Novavax, Novo Nordisk, Roche and Sanofi are among the major pharma companies listed as members of BIO.

According to the document, participants in the April meeting included Silvia Taylor, executive vice president and chief corporate affairs and advocacy officer at Novavax; Jim Wassil, executive vice president and chief operating officer of vaccine innovation company Vaxcyte; and Gottlieb, who in addition to being a Pfizer board member is also a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Wassil zeroed in on shareholder concerns, noting that investors are “sitting on the sidelines for the next 6-9 months” because the vaccine “pathway to approval is unpredictable and politicized.”

There was no mention in the meeting minutes of the need to improve vaccine safety. However, members purportedly discussed how to improve communication with the new administration “using their words — safety, efficiency, health resilience, transparency.”

John F. Crowley, president and CEO of BIO, also allegedly participated in the meeting.

The document allegedly shows that Crowley proposed a “creative communication campaign” targeting legislators and influencers instead of working “directly with RFK Jr.” The campaign would enlist the help of unions and conservative-leaning, pro-vaccine organizations like the American Enterprise Institute.

Crowley also allegedly suggested that BIO spend $2 million of its $4 million cash reserves on “vaccine programs.” The meeting included a discussion of BIO’s new “WhyWeVaccinate” campaign.

The document also suggests that “it is time to go to The Hill and lobby that it is time for RFK Jr to go … communicate what’s going on in business.”

It is unclear whether “The Hill” refers to Capitol Hill or to a publication by that name popular among policymaking circles.

A Novavax spokesperson contacted by The Defender declined to comment. Wassil and Gottlieb did not respond to a request for comment.

Despite claim of support, BIO has questioned some of RFK Jr.’s moves

In their statement, BIO emphasized the organization’s pro-vaccine campaign.

“We also believe strongly in the vital role that vaccines play for public health, and we will continue to be strong advocates for scientific rigor and the importance of vaccines to protect our children, our citizens broadly — and to protect and strengthen America. The BIO vaccines campaign supports this effort,” BIO said.

In spite of its stated support for Kennedy and the MAHA agenda, BIO has previously questioned some of Kennedy’s moves as health secretary.

In March, following the resignation of Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., former FDA director responsible for authorizing vaccines, under pressure from Kennedy, BIO said it was “deeply concerned” Marks’ resignation would “broadly impact the development of new, transformative therapies to fight diseases for the American people.”

Last month, following Kennedy’s dismissal of all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee, BIO said it was “greatly concerned about the uncertainty created by the abrupt dismissal of the serving committee members.”

BIO allegedly contributed to the censorship of non-establishment views concerning COVID-19 during the pandemic.

According to “Twitter Files” documents published in January 2023 by journalist Lee Fang, BIO “fully funded a special content moderation campaign designed by a contractor called Public Good Projects” during the pandemic. The campaign worked with Twitter “to set content moderation rules around COVID ‘misinformation.’”

According to Open Secrets, 63 of BIO’s 100 lobbyists in 2024 previously held government jobs, while BIO has spent $890,000 on lobbying efforts so far this year.

Health and medical freedom advocates have said that a “revolving door” between federal public health agencies and Big Pharma has compromised the ability of those agencies to effectively regulate the industry.

In its statement, HHS said that Kennedy and HHS are working to restore trust in public health and vaccines.

“Under Secretary Kennedy’s leadership, HHS is exposing decades of waste, fraud, and abuse, eliminating conflicts of interest, and restoring evidence-based policy to medicine and public health. The Department will stay focused on our mission, which is to protect the health and well-being of the American people,” HHS said.

Related articles in The Defender

• Big Pharma Lobbied Social Media to Flag COVID ‘Misinformation,’ Latest ‘Twitter Files’ Reveal

• HHS Ousts Peter Marks, Sending Vaccine Stocks Tumbling and Biopharma Lamenting Loss of ‘Ally’ at FDA

• Big Pharma Money ‘Permeates’ World’s Drug Regulatory Agencies, BMJ Investigation Shows

• Big Pharma’s Big Spending on Lobbying Netted Big Contracts in 2020

• ‘Key to Revolving Door’: FDA Tells Staff Who Leave for Pharma Jobs They Can Work ‘Behind the Scenes’ to Influence Agency