Roderick Mackenzie on COVID-19 pandemic

About Roderick Mackenzie

In a September 2022 video marking TransCelerate's 10-year anniversary, Rod MacKenzie, then former Chief Development Officer of Pfizer and immediate past chair of the TransCelerate board, stated that the COVID-19 pandemic "forced us to think differently and challenge every one of our convictions about drug discovery and development." He attributed the resulting "breakthrough vaccines and medicines with unprecedented speed and quality" to "remarkable cross-sector collaboration." MacKenzie said that if TransCelerate had not existed prior to 2020, a similar organization would have had to be created from scratch to address the public health need. MacKenzie described TransCelerate as having worked over the past decade to improve R&D by partnering with stakeholders to turn member insights into "sustainable industry change." He said that as Chief Development Officer he had a "front row seat" for Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine and oral antiviral development, which he described as setting "a new standard for the future of drug development." MacKenzie stated that the industry "cannot go back to the way things were before" and emphasized the importance of building on pandemic-era learnings to make trials "more equitable" and to accelerate delivery of medicines. He called TransCelerate "a key resource" for sharing learnings and addressing challenges such as access and diversity in trials.

Profile compiled from Roderick Mackenzie's verified public interviews and appearances. See all quotes & transcripts →