Calvin Cheng clarifies that Pfizer is the name of a company, not the vaccine’s name

Singapore — Former Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) Calvin Cheng has taken to Facebook to clarify what Comirnaty stands for and urges members of the public to prevent fake news from spreading around.

At the start of his post, Mr Cheng establishes that ‘Pfizer’ and ‘BioNTech’ are the names of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies that develop and manufacture vaccines and medicines.

In 2020, BioNTech collaborated with Pfizer for testing and logistics. Together, the two companies manufactured vaccines for preventing Covid-19 infections.

‘Pfizer’ and ‘BioNTech’ are not the names of the vaccine, Mr Cheng says.

Pfizer, which was established in the United States, also manufactures other drugs such as Viagra, which is a prescription medicine used in the treatment of erectile dysfunction. It also produces medicine like acetylcysteine, which can help with bodily conditions such as bronchitis or phlegm, and Celebrex which is used to alleviate swelling, heat, pain, and redness.

Mr Cheng emphasizes that the name of the vaccine that was developed by Pfizer and BioNTech is Comirnaty.

He then quotes Scott Piergrossi, the president of operations and communications of Brand Institute who said “The name is coined from Covid-19 immunity, and then embeds the mRNA in the middle, which is the platform technology, and as a whole the name is meant to evoke the word community.”

At the end of his post, Mr Cheng urges members of the public to share his post to spread awareness and counter fake news.

Some netizens said that this was similar to instances where a brand name had become synonymous with the item itself.

Meanwhile, some questioned why such a name was chosen despite the fact that a rationale had been given for the naming process.

Mr Cheng also recently advocated the importance of vaccinations as well as the need to exit Covid-19 restrictions in Singapore.

You Zi Xuan is an intern at The Independent SG.

/TISG