No, Ursula von der Leyen's husband does not work for a company owned by Pfizer

Context

On July 17, 2024, the General Court of the European Union criticized the European Commission for a lack of transparency over COVID-19 vaccine deals made in 2020 and 2021. The court ruled against the commission's decision to conceal large parts of the contract with vaccine manufacturers before publishing them in 2022. The agreements were signed with seven vaccine makers, including Pfizer.

Speculation on the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's personal ties to Pfizer re-emerged after the ruling (examples archived here and here). These posts claimed that: "Ursula von der Leyen is married to the German doctor Heiko von der Leyen… who is director of Orgenesis, which is owned by Pfizer… the same company that Ursula signed a 71 billion euro contract with to buy an astronomical 4.6 billion doses (10 per citizen)." An X post (archived here) making the same claim received nearly 1.5 million views less than a day after it was posted. 

Logically Facts found that Heiko von der Leyen is the medical director of Orgenesis. However, Pfizer does not own it.

In fact

Ursula von der Leyen's husband, Heiko von der Leyen, has been the medical director of the U.S. biotechnology company Orgenesis Inc. since 2020. According to its website, the company focuses on cell and gene therapy studies. While it is developing two products linked to COVID-19, Pfizer's involvement is not stated.

Orgenesis is a public company listed on the U.S. stock exchange. It is, therefore, owned and controlled by its shareholders. Logically Facts checked the company's shareholders and found that, according to data provided by Nasdaq, Pfizer is not listed as a shareholder of Orgenisis.

"Pfizer does not have business dealings with Orgenesis," a Pfizer spokesperson confirmed to Logically Facts. 

We could not find credible reporting on financial or commercial ties between the two companies. 

In 2022, the ties between the European Commission and Orgenesis came under scrutiny after eight MEPs drew attention to how Orgenesis has benefitted from European Union funding on two separate occasions. However, the EU's Transparency Commissioner Věra Jourová stated that Heiko von der Leyen did not breach any conflict of interest rules by working in a company awarded EU funding.

After receiving media attention, Heiko von der Leyen resigned from his position on the supervisory board of an EU-funded gene and cell therapy project. However, the Transparency Commissioner did not see any breach of EU rules or conflict of interest. Heiko von der Leyen was not involved in the grant application process but joined after Orogenesis's Italian subsidiary had been selected.

Logically Facts contacted Orgenesis for comment but has not yet received a response.

The verdict

Heiko von der Leyen is the Medical Director of Orgenesis, which Pfizer does not own. A spokesperson from Pfizer confirmed that the company has no business dealings with Orgenesis. The EU's Transparency Commissioner did not see a conflict of interest in Orgenesis receiving EU funding on two separate occasions. Therefore, we marked the claim as false.