On June 8, during the pro-government POSTV’s program, “Europe’s Dawn,” co-host Guri Sultanishvili claimed that the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen’s husband, was employed by the company Pfizer. The comment likely refers to the scandal surrounding negotiations between the President of the European Commission and Pfizer over vaccine procurement.
Guri Sultanishvili [16:35]: “I remembered that Ursula von der Leyen’s husband was employed at Pfizer, and then it went from there, you know…”
This comment was accompanied in the broadcast by a screenshot of an article titled, “MEPs to question Ursula von der Leyen behind closed doors on Pfizer contract issue.”
The claim made by the co-host of “Europe’s Dawn” that Ursula von der Leyen’s husband was employed by Pfizer and that this is how the EU obtained vaccines is disinformation. In reality, Heiko von der Leyen is a director at the company Orgenesis, which is not owned by Pfizer.
Heiko von der Leyen is a physician and serves as the Medical Director of the American biotechnology company Orgenesis. The company focuses on cell and gene therapy research. Heiko von der Leyen has held this position since 2020.
On Orgenesis’ website, it is stated that the company is working on two projects related to COVID-19, but there is no indication of Pfizer’s involvement. Among the company’s developments is a COVID-19 vaccine called AutoVac, but according to the website, the vaccine is still at the preclinical research stage.
The claim that Ursula von der Leyen’s husband is employed at Pfizer has been circulated by foreign authors in the past. The fact-checking organization Logically Facts also examined the claim. Since Orgenesis is a publicly traded company listed on the U.S. stock exchange, they reviewed shareholder data and found, based on Nasdaq information, that Pfizer is not a shareholder in Orgenesis. “Pfizer does not have business dealings with Orgenesis,” a Pfizer spokesperson confirmed to Logically Facts. Currently, the only institutional owner of the company listed on Nasdaq is Knoll Capital Management, LLC. There is no publicly available information confirming that Pfizer owns or holds shares in Orgenesis.
It is also worth noting that in 2022, discussions arose about the links between Orgenesis and the European Commission after Orgenesis received EU funding on two occasions. However, the EU Commissioner for Transparency, Věra Jourová, stated at the time that Heiko von der Leyen had not violated any conflict-of-interest rules when the company received EU funding. Nevertheless, Heiko von der Leyen resigned from the supervisory board of the EU-funded gene and cell therapy project. Importantly, he was not involved in the grant application process and joined the project only after Orgenesis’ Italian subsidiary had already received the grant.
Alongside Guri Sultanishvili’s claim, the broadcast showed a screenshot of an article concerning the European Parliament’s questioning of Ursula von der Leyen. This visual, combined with the co-host’s quote, creates the impression that the President of the European Commission was being questioned because of her husband’s company. In reality, the case pertained to the so-called “Pfizergate” scandal, which began after New York Times journalist Matina Stevis was denied access to text messages exchanged between Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla during 2021-2022, which related to vaccine purchase negotiations. In 2025, the General Court of the European Union ruled that the European Commission made the wrong decision by refusing to release the messages. According to the court, the Commission failed to provide plausible evidence that the messages did not exist or did not contain information of significant public interest. As a result, the court upheld the New York Times’ complaint and deemed the Commission’s decision illegitimate.
It is important to note that Ursula von der Leyen’s husband, Heiko von der Leyen, was not involved in the Pfizergate scandal. He was not mentioned in court proceedings, media reports, or official investigations. The dispute solely concerned the European Commission’s refusal to release text messages between its president and the Pfizer CEO. This had nothing to do with Heiko von der Leyen’s employment or connections.
In summary, the claim about Ursula von der Leyen’s husband being connected to Pfizer is disinformation. Heiko von der Leyen is the Medical Director of Orgenesis, which is not owned by Pfizer. The screenshot shown in the broadcast relates to the Pfizergate transparency issue, which had no connection to the President of the European Commission’s husband.
Prepared by Mariam Maisuradze
Myth Detector Laboratory
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