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Group alleged bias toward white, Asian-American applicants

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Pfizer ( PFE ) expresses pride in its commitment to diversity

By Nate Raymond

Jan 31 (Reuters) - Pfizer ( PFE ) has resolved a lawsuit

by a conservative group that alleged that a fellowship program

that the drugmaker established to boost the pipeline of Black,

Latino and Native American people in leadership positions at the

company unlawfully discriminated against white and

Asian-American applicants.

According to papers filed on Friday in Manhattan federal

court, Pfizer ( PFE ) will stop accepting new fellows and has already

opened its program to applicants regardless of their race after

being sued in 2022 by Do No Harm, an advocacy group opposed to

diversity initiatives in medicine.

The settlement came after the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit

Court of Appeals on Jan. 10 reversed a judge's decision to

dismiss the case and gave Do No Harm a new shot at establishing

that it had the necessary legal standing to pursue the

litigation.

"While Pfizer ( PFE ) 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," Stanley Goldfarb, Do No Harm's

chair, said in a statement.

Pfizer ( PFE ) in a statement said it was pleased Do No Harm had

decided to voluntarily dismiss the case, which the company said

had no merit.

The New York-based company changed the program's criteria in

February 2023 but continued to fight the case, and on Friday

said it remained "proud of its commitment to diversity, equity

and inclusion."

Several other companies including Walmart ( WMT ) and McDonald's

have recently backed away from diversity practices

following pressure from conservative activists. An executive

order signed by Republican President Donald Trump following his

return to office sought to eradicate workforce DEI (diversity,

equity and inclusion) initiatives in the federal government and

the private sector.

Virginia-based Do No Harm is a non-profit organization that

has said it counts doctors, medical students and others as

members and aims "to protect healthcare from radical, divisive

and discriminatory ideologies." Goldfarb is white.

The group sued Pfizer ( PFE ) over the company's Breakthrough

Fellowship Program, which the company launched in 2021, arguing

the program discriminated against white and Asian-American

applicants in violation of federal anti-discrimination laws.

The lawsuit was filed a month before the U.S. Supreme Court

heard arguments in cases in which its 6-3 conservative majority

would later in June 2023 declare unlawful race-conscious student

admissions policies used by Harvard University and the

University of North Carolina.