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Bloomberg Businessweek March 8, 2021grant in September. (Pfizer is not party to that agreement.)
The EC says it hasn’t seen Germany’s deal, which hasn’t been
finalized. “Parallel negotiations aren’t allowed in our vaccine
strategy,” De Keersmaecker says. “Legally it’s not allowed.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel tried to defuse Europe’s
vaccine crisis by holding a videoconference with commission
officials and drugmakers including Pfizer executives on Feb. 1.
Pfizer says it got back on schedule with the EU at the end of
January. Bourla says countries started getting more doses by
late February.
Striking deals and mass-producing a new vaccine in the
middle of a pandemic was never going to be straightforward.
“This is the fastest any vaccine has been approved and rolled
out, the fastest any vaccine has been mass-administered to
people, the fastest response to a pandemic, and probably the
fastest manufacturing ramp-up ever,” says Jonathan Miller,
an analyst at Evercore ISI. “I don’t think this could have gone
much faster than it did.”P ublic-health officials have warned that rich countries
making deals with companies such as Pfizer will
restrict access to the vaccine for those who can’t
afford price-is-no-object deals. In January, WHO Director-
General Tedros Ghebreyesus criticized bilateral deals and
implored high-income countries to share doses, warning that
“the world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure.” It
wasn’t until the end of that month that Bourla announced an
agreement with Covax. The deal, for 40 million doses, rep-
resented less than 2% of Pfizer’s projected 2021 production.
Other vaccine developers have come in bigger. AstraZeneca
has committed 170 million doses of its vaccine, while the
Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd. has agreed to supply 1.1 bil-
lion doses of its versions of the AstraZeneca shot and another
vaccine developed by the American company Novavax Inc.,
pending authorization. Covax is also finalizing commitments
for hundreds of millions of additional doses from Johnson &
Johnson and Novavax.
No one in public health says the current global rollout of
Covid vaccines is the best way to beat the pandemic. “In an
ideal world, what we would have had is one global mecha-
nism where manufacturers would have said, ‘We’re all going
to supply one entity,’ and governments said, ‘We’re all going
to procure through one entity,’ ” says Katherine O’Brien, the
WHO’s technical lead on Covax. “It makes much more sense.”
Bourla, of course, doesn’t run a public-health agency. He
answers to his shareholders. Locking in orders early, some-
times at a higher price for those that can afford to pay more,
is what a CEO does. Pfizer has said it expects initial profit
margins in the upper 20% range, which is high for a vaccine.
Moderna has charged more for its shot outside the U.S., but
its limited manufacturing capacity means it’s done a fraction
of the deals Pfizer has, with most deliveries expected only in
the spring. AstraZeneca has struck dozens of bilateral agree-
ments, but it’s promised not to make a profit during the pan-
demic; it’s selling its shot for a few dollars a dose. If there’sa challenger to Pfizer’s primacy, it might be the recently
authorized vaccine from Johnson & Johnson, which is highly
effective, requires simple refrigeration, and is administered
in a single shot.
For now, though, Pfizer has unparalleled brand awareness,
even if “Comirnaty” doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. (The
name might not even be used in the U.S.; brand names are
established only after full FDA approval.) In late February,
President Joe Biden toured Pfizer’s Michigan plant and reas-
sured the public that the government is working overtime to
get everyone vaccinated. To meet the challenge, Pfizer is con-
tinuing to increase production. The company now expects to
be able to ship 13 million doses a week by mid-March, up from
4 million to 5 million a week in early February.
Speaking with investors and analysts after releasing earnings
results in January, Bourla and other Pfizer executives talked
expansively about a post-pandemic world in which the com-
pany would be able to charge more for the vaccine. Vaccine
prices are normally about $150 to $175, said Chief Financial
Officer Frank D’Amelio. “We’re in a pandemic pricing environ-
ment,” he said. “Obviously we’re going to get more on price.”
With new variants of the coronavirus spreading, the need
for regular booster shots is
highly likely. Pfizer is work-
ing on a new vaccine that
can target the South African
mutation of the virus, which
may infect some people
who’ve been vaccinated. The
prospect of the world’s pop-
ulation of almost 8 billion
needing boosters puts Covid
vaccines into an entirely new league. Pfizer expects to be able
to make its vaccine easier to store and ship—it’s working on
a freeze-dried version. The company is preparing for what
Bourla calls an “open market” in which supplies are plentiful
and people can choose which vaccine they want.
“I would feel very comfortable that we will have the lion’s
share of the market, because we are first and we are best,”
Bourla said on his earnings call. “In scenarios that Covid will
move from a pandemic into more of a normal type of vac-
cination business, it is very clear that Pfizer will have a key
advantage, not only because of the strength of data but also
because we have developed significant brand equity and trust
with the people.”
The shortage will eventually subside. Until then, Bourla
occupies a strange position. He’s a savior, the bold leader
of a company that stepped up. But he promised desper-
ate governments doses he couldn’t deliver on time. As sup-
plies increase, hard feelings may fade, but Bourla’s decisions
during the height of the pandemic will be the subject of study.
There was a vacuum in global leadership. He and his com-
pany filled it. The world needs better solutions before the next
public-health crisis comes around. <BW> �With Ivan Levingston,
Sylvia Westall, and Naomi KresgePresident Biden tours Pfizer’s vaccine plant
in Michigan in late FebruaryEVAN VUCCI/AP PHOTO