The CEO of Pfizer on Developing a Vaccine in Record Time

Albert Bourla, The CEO of Pfizer on Developing a Vaccine in Record Time, Harvard Business Review, May–June 2021.

On March 19, 2020, as Covid-19 swept across the world, Bourla challenged everyone at Pfizer and its partner BioNTech—a German company focused on cancer immunotherapies—to “make the impossible possible”: develop a vaccine more quickly than anyone ever had before, ideally within six months and certainly before the end of the year.

Less than eight months later, on Sunday, November 8, they discovered that they had succeeded: Their combined phase two and three trials showed a 95% efficacy rate. In the spring, thanks to their work and that of the other companies whose vaccines have been authorized, 300 million doses should be available around the world.

It took a moon-shot challenge, out-of-the-box thinking, intercompany cooperation, liberation from bureaucracy, and most of all, hard work from everyone at Pfizer and BioNTech to accomplish what they did in 2020. Organizations of any size or in any industry can learn from these strategies to solve their own problems and to produce important work that benefits a broad swath of society.

Lessons Learned

In the insane year that was 2020, what did we learn at Pfizer?

First and most important, success is a team effort.

Second, it can pay to put purpose first. The positive financial impact for Pfizer of the Covid-19 vaccine became possible only because return on investment was never a consideration. We drove ahead with mission in mind.

Third, moon-shot challenges that align with the right purpose are galvanizing. 

Fourth, when you set a huge goal, you must encourage the out-of-the-box thinking required to achieve it. 

I think a fifth key to our success was that we isolated our scientists from financial concerns and freed them from excessive bureaucracy.

A final lesson is the need to embrace cooperation—especially in a crisis. As I said, our work on Covid-19 with BioNTech began without a final contract.