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Moonshot
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Moonshot

Inside Pfizer's Nine-Month Race to Make the Impossible Possible

Dr. Albert Bourla
HarperBusiness, 2022
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Following the 2019 onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, companies and individuals across business, government and the public health sectors worked tirelessly to discover and roll out a new vaccine in record time. Pfizer’s chief executive officer, Dr. Albert Bourla, describes how he drove innovation while leading a transformational culture change during this unprecedented time. Pfizer’s success in vaccinating millions proved the seemingly impossible possible, says Bourla, as people ranging from researchers to regulators found ways to work together without sacrificing vaccine quality or values such as equity.

Summary

Pfizer produced its mRNA vaccine following a transformational culture shift.

On December 31, 2019, Chinese authorities revealed that a mysterious virus with pneumonia-like symptoms had infected patients in Wuhan. The revelation triggered a worldwide race to create a new vaccine for the virus, later identified as SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19.

Pfizer’s chief executive officer, Dr. Albert Bourla, successfully led his company’s “nine-month moonshot.” On December 8, 2020, 90-year-old Margaret Keenan became the first person in the world to receive a vaccination built on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology: the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The COVID-19 pandemic claimed the lives of more than five million people. At the same time, Pfizer transformed from being a conglomerate of multiple businesses to a company with a singular focus: scientific innovation.

Bourla became Pfizer’s CEO in 2018, and under his leadership, the company embraced new corporate values: courage, excellence, equity and joy. In 2020, Bourla drafted priorities to guide the company during the pandemic, including ensuring “safety and ...

About the Author

Dr. Albert Bourla is the chairman and CEO of Pfizer.

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