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

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

Bapu Jena and Julie Kanfer
Freakonomics Radio, 2022
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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.

Take-Aways

  • 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.
  • Pfizer chose to develop an mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 because it offers important benefits over other vaccine technologies.
  • The COVID-19 vaccine’s speed of development shows that simplified processes could apply to future drug development, but regulators and the FDA would have to be on board.

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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