Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer, Pfizer Inc
Pfizer CEO on Booster Development, Ukraine Refugee Vaccinations
Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla discusses his new book "Moonshot," progress on developing a fourth Covid-19 booster, and efforts to vaccinate refugees from Ukraine on "Balance of Power."
About Albert Bourla
Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, said on the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call that the company’s strong performance reflected “disciplined execution” and that new and acquired products grew 22% in the quarter. He stated that Pfizer does not plan a large merger in the near term, describing the next few years as a time to “execute on AI transformation” rather than pursue a mega-merger. Bourla also highlighted recent patent settlements for Vyndamax, which he said give the company confidence it will enter a period of high single-digit revenue growth starting in 2029. He noted that Pfizer invested nearly $80 billion in recent years to acquire molecules and pipelines to offset upcoming patent losses. In multiple interviews, Bourla discussed the rise of China’s pharmaceutical sector, arguing that the U.S. should focus on improving its own innovation rather than trying to slow China’s progress. He described China’s scientific capabilities as having a “meteoric rise” and said that by the end of the decade, eight of the world’s top ten universities based on peer-reviewed publications were Chinese. Bourla expressed optimism about artificial intelligence, calling it “transformative” and predicting it will contribute to a “scientific renaissance” in medicine. He also commented on U.S. health policy, saying he was encouraged by recent statements from Trump administration officials about modernizing the FDA and accelerating drug development, though he said he had not yet seen practical effects. Bourla described his increased time in Washington as necessary because health care has become “extremely politicized” and because governments are major customers for Pfizer.
Transcript (20 segments)
✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Host0:00
We welcome now the leader of the team that won that race. He is Dr. Albert Bourla. He's Chairman and CEO of Pfizer and he's the author of the brand new book "Moonshot: Inside Pfizer's Nine-Month Race to Make the Impossible Possible." Thank you so much for being back with us. Really appreciate it.
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Albert Bourla0:14
Thank you, David.
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Host0:15
It's a fascinating book as I told you. It's a good read. I recommend to everybody. But I'm going to just read one passage because it takes us back to April of 2020 and we may forget now how bad things were, particularly in a place like New York City. What was happening in our hospitals, a lack of ventilators. And you had your team together. They'd worked hard. They came up with a really aggressive plan. They proposed it to you. They're very proud of it and you said no thanks. And what you said was it could not be done, that is to say really speed this up, but it had to be done. There is a time for consensus building and there's a time to push. This was the time to push. So take us back to that moment and how your team reacted when, as I say, they'd come up with a really aggressive plan and you said yeah, not good enough.
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Albert Bourla0:54
Well, they tried to understand what do I mean not good enough because they thought that this is the best that anyone could dream of having. And I knew that they were right, but also I knew that if we fail, then we have to deal with way bigger things than what could impact the company or America. It would impact the world. So I told them there's no option of failing and there's no way that we can do it because failure is not an option. And if not us, then who?
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Host1:21
Did they try to talk you out of it? Did they try to say you just don't understand, Doctor, it can't be done?
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Albert Bourla1:26
They were silent. I didn't leave much room to maneuver because I knew that if I would, then doubts would start sitting in their mind. So it was very clear to me we need to get it by October. This is when the new wave will come. Go and do it. And actually I told them, and it was a little bit of a psychological blackmail, go and calculate how many people will die if we're not successful with a vaccine by October.
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Host1:51
So you basically said you've got eight months, more or less say eight, nine months to get this done. Something that in success, and it wasn't guaranteed there was any success, would be eight or ten years. So this is a revolutionary shift. How did they get it done? How did they reinvent the whole thing?
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Albert Bourla2:08
I fundamentally think that the goal was so hairy, so obscene, that they had to think out of the box. If you ask them instead of ten years to do it in eight years, they will try to improve the current processes. If you ask them to do it in eight months, they have to refigure everything. And this is what they did. The same is with manufacturing, which I call in the book the second miracle. At Pfizer, we were making 200 million doses of all vaccines across all manufacturing sites in a year. I didn't ask them now to make 300 million. I told them make three billion. They couldn't do it by improving the current processes. They had to think completely out of the box, and this is what they did. And so now we have this wonderful vaccine that so many of us have had, and it relieves a lot of the anxiety as well as some of the disease that we all have.
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Host2:51
What's next for your mRNA? For example, an Omicron variant? Is that on the way? Is it a fourth booster? Is it young children? What's next from your point of view? What are the priorities?
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Albert Bourla3:04
Of course, first of all, I think we have the vaccines and we have the treatments. And when it comes to the vaccines, the goal is always to stay ahead of the virus. Actually, today in the morning before coming here, I was reviewing new data of all our studies. They look encouraging, but I can't speak enough. We need to wait until we see the full set of the data. But we are trying to bring something that is a new version that will cover equally well the old and the new variants, all variants, a pan-variant vaccine. And I think we are in a good way. But also on the treatments, we are already launching. We have already launched a treatment into the American and European marketplace. And this has the potential to be a game changer because if people that are sick get it, instead of 10 people going to the hospital, only one will go.
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Host3:51
I understand you don't have the data yet, but do you have a sense of a timeline when you think you will have data on, for example, under five or Omicron variants, or for that matter, fourth booster?
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Albert Bourla4:02
Each one has different timelines. I believe that for the kids we will know next month. I believe for the Omicron we will know likely next month, early maybe this month as well, depending on how much we are going to announce to the world because we want to have a more complete picture before we go. And the same is with the fourth dose booster. We are about to send something to the FDA. So things are happening as we speak right now.
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Host4:25
So one of the things that comes across in the book is from the beginning you said don't worry about the money. Believe it or not, you said just spend what you need to spend, whatever it is, we'll figure out the money later. Which is not what a lot of CEOs perhaps would do in that circumstance. In the end, it turned out very well for Pfizer. It gives us a sense of going forward and patent protection on your coveted vaccine. We have some people like Dava saying they're going to have a generic. How long do you think you'll have that protection and what sort of an income stream might that mean for Pfizer going forward?
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Albert Bourla4:54
Look, I think the patents are the way the industry exists. Without protecting your intellectual property, you have nothing else. And you invest all this money so that you can protect intellectual property. But the patents last for a period of time. So for every new medicine, very rarely a patent will go beyond 10 years, for example. So then everybody can come and do the same very cheap. This is the same here with our vaccines. Now, because it is a pandemic, we made sure that patents would not be in the way of people having access. So that's why we priced it in a way that it is accessible to all. But also we manufacture enough so everybody will have. Right now, for example, countries in Africa, they have enough access. Actually, the African CDC last week asked us and others publicly to stop sending them vaccines because they cannot absorb it. They have issues with infrastructure, hospital infrastructure, to be able to administer.
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Host5:52
We have another crisis right now obviously in Ukraine, and we all watch in horror as civilians are losing their lives out there day by day. There's also a lot of refugee movement, over 1.7 million now it's said. What does that mean potentially with respect to COVID? Because for example, I've heard about a third of Ukrainians are vaccinated. What happens with those 1.1 million refugees coming across in Poland? How do we get them vaccinated?
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Albert Bourla6:17
Yes, a third are vaccinated, and actually most of them with our own vaccine. I had discussions with President Zelenskyy before, and we were able to send them enough quantities before the crisis. Now the risk is with the people that are concerned that are coming together in big conglomerates into the refugee camps at the borders with Poland. We are sending vaccines, treatments, and other medications because they're going to be needed over there. And of course, we are trying to help not only our own employees in Ukraine but also Ukraine with a lot of donations.
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Host6:49
Finally, this is International Women's Day. I'm mindful of that. And one of the things that comes across in your book is the role of women at the very top of your company in this race to create and distribute the vaccine. It's quite extraordinary.
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Albert Bourla7:02
Oh yes. Every day, almost, maybe at least two or three times per week, I had in front of my Zoom computer screen everybody, and most of them were women, or at least half of them. But also the leaders. I mean, Kathrin Jansen, which is the head of our vaccines, she was pivotal in the vaccine. And so many others. But also on the treatment, you need to know that Charlotte Allerton, the head of Medicine Design, she is the one who designed this molecule in four months instead of four years. And there is Lisa Anderson also, the one who put it in the clinic. So a lot of women played their role in this treatment.
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Host7:38
One last one, Albert, because we hear from so many companies there just aren't the women. It has to take time to get them in the pipeline. There's really a problem grooming them. How have you mastered that? I mean, how has Pfizer been able to have so many accomplished senior women?
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Albert Bourla7:50
I would say how Pfizer was blessed to have so many accomplished senior women. And I think it is an effort but also a belief in their capabilities. And I have been impressed in my life when women make it to the top. They are really way better than men because they have to face way more difficult conditions than a man. We have to admit.