Pfizer "regrets offense" over demo photos

Global pharmaceutical behemoth Pfizer has expressed regret over the  offence caused by an employee who took photographs of Harvard Medical  School student demonstrators. Senator Charles Grassley (Republican,  Iowa), the ranking member of the US Senate's Finance Committee, wrote to  Jeffrey Kindler, Pfizer's chairman and chief executive, about the  incident.

In his letter, Sen Grassley said: "I was greatly disturbed to read an  article in the New York Times documenting an employee of your  organization who was taking cellphone photos of Harvard University  medical students demonstrating against pharmaceutical influence on  campus." The Iowa Senator added that he had complained about a previous  incident in 2008, involving the alleged hiring by a drugmaker of a  private investigator to check out the background of a Food and Drug  Administration official.

Sen Grassley asked for documents concerning the payments made by Pfizer  to Harvard Medical School faculty members from 2007 to the present day,  as well as any documents, including e-mails and photographs, since the  beginning of last year concerning any student protests at Harvard  concerning pharmaceutical influence in medicine.