Pfizer appointed a former chief executive officer at Vanguard, the drug giant's biggest investor, to its board on Tuesday as it faces pressure from activist hedge fund Starboard Value. Mortimer "Tim" Buckley served as Vanguard's chairman and chief executive until this year when he announced his retirement.

Starboard’s stake comes amid a time of struggle at the drugmaker, which has begun to cut costs aggressively as demand for its Covid-19 medicines recedes.

The ongoing corporate battle between Pfizer and activist investment firm Starboard Value escalated on Thursday when Starboard pushed Pfizers board to investigate alleged coercive actions. This follows the

The corporate clash between Pfizer and Starboard Value heated up on Thursday when the activist investment firm pressed the U.S. drugmaker to investigate actions by its board, after two former executives backed out of its campaign against the company.

Activist investor Starboard Value claims the pharma giant’s former CEO and CFO were “threatened” into backing current management.

Pfizer in recent months has implemented aggressive cost-cutting measures to help it weather the steep decline in sales of its COVID-19 products.

Activist investor Starboard Value has taken a stake of about $1 billion in Pfizer and wants the U.S. drug giant to make changes to turn its performance around, sources familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

Starboard has accused Pfizer of “coercive conduct” after executives who initially backed the hedge fund retracted their support.

Activist investor Starboard Value accused Pfizer of pressuring its former CEO Ian Read and ex-CFO Frank D’Amelio to halt support for Starboard’s turnaround campaign. Starboard’s Jeff Smith revealed the company allegedly threatened to claw back compensation and cancel unvested shares.