The former senior manager of the Trump administration’s COVID-19 vaccine program, Moncef Slaoui, is accused of sexual harassment and has been sacked by his current employer, British pharmaceutical giant GSK.
In a press release on Wednesday, GSK announces the “end of the contract of Moncef Slaoui”, who served as chairman of the board of directors of Galvani, one of its subsidiaries and joint venture with Verily, a subsidiary of Alphabet, the parent company from Google.
This departure with “immediate effect” follows “a letter received containing accusations of sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct towards a GSK employee by Mr. Slaoui and which took place several years ago,” the statement said.
The group says it has conducted an ongoing investigation with the help of a law firm and has “confirmed the allegations.”
“The behavior of Dr. Slaoui is totally unacceptable (…) and contrary to the values of the GSK culture”, insists the group.
Mr. Slaoui spent most of his career at GSK where he joined in 1988 and rose through the ranks. He had been a member of the board of directors since 2006 and had notably directed the group’s research and development activities, including on vaccination. He left the group in 2017, however, remaining an advisor.
Mr Slaoui had been appointed senior scientific adviser on anti-Covid vaccine research to the Trump administration in 2020 until the arrival of the Biden administration in the White House, which ended this program to focus on the vaccination campaign.
Operation “Warp Speed” headed by Mr. Slaoui had been hailed as effective.