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Class members in New York state recently settled a historic false advertising lawsuit against GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)—one of the largest vaccine manufacturers in the world. ICAN provided support for the lawsuit, which targeted GSK’s “Big Bad Cough” campaign for its Tdap (pertussis) vaccine.
Once upon a time, in 2015, GSK began an advertising campaign that tried to increase fear around the spread of pertussis (whooping cough) to increase sales of its pertussis vaccine. The ads made it appear that if grandparents did not get vaccinated with GSK’s product, they would be “big bad wolves” who could spread pertussis and endanger their grandchildren.
The problem for GSK, the lawsuit alleged, is that this campaign premise was false. Tdap does not stop pertussis infection or transmission. In fact, people receiving Tdap can repeatedly become infected with and are capable of transmitting pertussis while remaining asymptomatic, making them more likely to infect a grandchild.
Luckily, Aaron Siri and his team at Siri & Glimstad took on this case in August 2021, with support from ICAN. GSK abruptly ended the ad campaign soon after the lawsuit was filed, and Siri’s team has now achieved a ground-breaking class settlement for residents of New York state who were convinced to get vaccinated because of this advertising campaign.
As our supporters know, it is incredibly hard to sue a vaccine manufacturer. This victory—the first false advertising case involving a vaccine that we are aware of—will go down in history and live happily ever after!
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