Pfizer Drops Discriminatory DEI Fellowship After Do No Harm Lawsuit

Pfizer publicly dropped race-based selection criteria from an internship program that discriminated against white and Asian applicants, settling a lawsuit with Do No Harm, an organization committed to safeguarding the medical industry from leftwing ideology.

The pharmaceutical giant settled with Do No Harm after the organization launched a lawsuit challenging Pfizer’s Breakthrough Fellowship program, which originally excluded white and Asian would-be applicants on the basis of their race.

Do No Harm Chairman Dr. Stanley Goldfarb touted the victory, noting that the settlement amounts to an admission from the company that they were previously engaged in unlawful racial discrimination.

“While Pfizer would like to quietly sweep their unlawful discrimination under the rug, their settlement acknowledges what we said all along: racially discriminatory programs are unlawful and will not go unchallenged,” Goldfarb told The Daily Wire. “For far too long, companies like Pfizer have allowed political ideology to hijack its core responsibilities.”

The lawsuit, launched by Do No Harm in September 2022, alleged that Pfizer was in violation of the Civil Rights Act, with the organization representing two individuals who were ineligible for the program.

The fellowship program from Pfizer originally stated that eligible applicants must “meet the program’s goals of increasing the pipeline for Black/African American, Latino/Hispanic and Native Americans.”

“In other words, White and Asian applicants aren’t welcome. This is the exact kind of racial discrimination that so-called ‘anti-racism’ requires,” Do No Harm wrote at the time. While the suit was first dismissed in December 2022, Do No Harm successfully appealed before finally winning the case in January 2024.

The victory comes as corporations across various industries have engaged in anti-white, anti-Asian discrimination in the name of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

IBM hosted two internship opportunities, including one that barred white and Asian applicants and another that barred male applicants — unless those men identified as women — while Robert Kraft’s company, best known for owning the New England Patriots, appeared to engage in anti-white discrimination when it advertised a job posting that listed “BIPOC,” a term that means “black, indigenous, people of color,” as a job qualification.

J.P. Morgan’s now discontinued “launching leaders undergraduate program” was only open to “Black, Hispanic and Native American sophomores and juniors from all majors who are interested in financial services and have a 3.5 GPA minimum,” while a Wells Fargo fellowship was limited to “underrepresented candidates.”

The Trump administration appears poised to crack down on discriminatory DEI programs in the corporate world, with the president naming a vocal critic of DEI as the Acting Director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.