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Pfizer’s CEO on the Big Gamble That Brought Us the COVID Vaccine

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Pfizer’s CEO on the Big Gamble That Brought Us the COVID Vaccine

Freakonomics Radio,

5 min read
3 take-aways
Audio & text

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Imagine if your decisions at work had a definitive influence on a worldwide pandemic.

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8

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Dr. Albert Bourla was born in Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece. He took a winding road from veterinary medicine to research in academia, and then he was recruited by Pfizer. They had to pursue him pretty hard, because to Bourla, the private sector was “the antichrist.” But then something surprising happened: Bourla fell in love with the private sector. Several countries and positions later, Bourla worked his way up to become Pfizer’s CEO. In this episode of the Freakonomics, MD podcast, Bourla describes the decision-making process of one of the largest pharmaceutical companies during a worldwide pandemic.

Summary

Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla prioritized keeping employees safe, keeping up with demand for vital products, and developing treatments and vaccines.

When Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer since 2019, first realized that COVID-19 was going to become a worldwide situation, he asked himself, “What do we need to do? And what is our role?” This resulted in a list of three questions. First, how would Pfizer take care of its people? Second, how would they keep up with demand for COVID-relevant medicines when demand would probably go up by 40-50 times? And third, as the largest research engine in the world, how could Pfizer contribute to treatments and vaccines?

Dr. Bourla was suddenly very aware that he was the top decision-maker, and that if he made a mistake, no one would stop him. When Pfizer’s scientists presented the idea of an mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 to Bourla, he was skeptical. mRNA had never before produced a viable product. But when they sat down and ...

About the Podcast

Freakonomics, MD host Bapu Jena is a physician, economist and faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He teaches health care policy at Harvard Medical School and is a practicing physician in the Department of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. Guest Dr. Albert Bourla is a veterinarian and the chairman and chief executive officer of Pfizer.

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