Can Pfizer defend its COVID-19 research from viral undercover videos?

American drugmaker Pfizer said on Friday they have not conducted gain-of-function or directed evolution research during their COVID-19 research, after a viral video posted on Thursday by Project Veritas – a non-profit group – showed an apparent Pfizer executive saying the company had done so.

The video lasts almost 10 minutes, a large part of which showed a person talking about internal operations at Pfizer, which includes "directed evolution" among others.

The person also said COVID-19 is the company's "cash cow," adding that the company is trying to "mutate" the novel coronavirus.