Read, former Pfizer CEO and chair, instituted a cultural change which was tailor-made to “think big” and have the courage to seize opportunities. When asked by Chris Viehbacher, managing partner at Gurnet Point Capital and the former CEO of Sanofi, how such a large corporation adopted the mindset of a fast-moving biotech, Bourla credited his predecessor Ian Read for creating a nimble-footed R&D organization. Meanwhile, CEPI’s offer to help in testing against variants has potential to harmonize assessment of COVID-19 vaccines performance.
#Operation warp speed vaccines full
Agency officials were “equal heroes” as they conducted overnight inspections, conveying feedback quickly.īreakthrough COVID-19 Cases Raise Concern Over B.1.617 Variant By Vibha Ravi Īs the B.1.617 variant of SARS-CoV-2 spreads to countries including the UK and US after having caused havoc in India, vaccine effectiveness against this variant is under the lens with breakthrough cases reported post full vaccination. The CEO acknowledged Pfizer’s employees, who showed just 1% absenteeism, despite the pandemic, as they “knew their work affects lives.” Emphasizing the role played by the FDA, Bourla said it didn’t get the credit it deserves. It wasn’t just top management that made a difference though. (Also see " COVID-19 Windfall Will Help Pfizer Remain Top Drug Company" - Scrip, 2 Feb, 2021.) The two companies signed a formal commercial agreement only in January 2021, a month after their mRNA vaccine, now known as Comirnaty (tozinameran), received an emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration. 95 was something that really, really surprised us." – Albert Bourla, Pfizer CEO and Chairman Watertight contracts are the norm before moving ahead on a deal but BioNTech transferred the technical know-how to Pfizer the next day, even though a letter of intent was signed three weeks later as Pfizer’s lawyers were “having a heart attack that we were exchanging all this information without a legal, formal document.” We were expecting something in the 70s and FDA was ready to give approval at 50 if you remember. "Undoubtedly, for me the biggest surprise was the level of efficacy this vaccine was able to accomplish. He said, “maybe we start and worry about the contract later.
It's going to be very challenging to put together all the legal documents in the contract and if we start after that we're going to miss the train." At some point I told him if we are to do something like that, time is of essence. We discussed on principles rather than on what we're going to do, and then he talked to me about his life and then I talked to him about my life, and we decided to call again. “It was a very, very pivotal moment…and we hit it off. Though the two companies were working since 2018 on an influenza vaccine using the now revolutionary mRNA technology, Bourla personally didn’t know the management, so he placed a call to BioNTech founder and CEO Ugur Sahin. On the advice of his scientists, a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine partnership with BioNTech SE was set in motion in the most unconventional manner, Bourla told Stelios Papadopoulos Biogen, Inc.’s CEO, who conducted the fireside chat on 22 June. With the world “collapsing in front of us” on account of the pandemic, he realized “this was above and beyond the future of Pfizer…and I knew that if we are successful, we will be able to contribute to the world what is needed and if we fail, we have bigger worries because the whole world would be in a mess.” Pfizer Inc.’s shaping of its own "Operation Warp Speed" while developing a COVID-19 vaccine is a fascinating story of trust, commitment and organizational preparedness, one well narrated by CEO and chairman Albert Bourla at the USA-India Chamber of Commerce’s annual Biopharma & Healthcare Summit.
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