Moonshot by Dr. Albert Bourla - Give This Book as a Holiday Present to Yourself!
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Albert Bourla, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Pfizer. The event took place at the Bruce Museum—a Connecticut-based museum of both science and art—an appropriate setting to hear from a man of science, who had recently published a book, Moonshot, with the subtitle: Inside Pfizer’s Nine-Month Race to Make the Impossible Possible.
Moonshot is not just a memoir; it is also a highly documented historical record of how Pfizer, partnering with the German biotech company, BioNTech, broke every record in the history of pharmaceutical product development to be first to bring to market billions—yes billions—of doses of a life-saving vaccine during the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic. And it achieved that objective in a period of nine months, from March to November of 2020. It is a story of leadership, of collaboration, of risk-taking, of teamwork, of trust and of thanks. Dr. Bourla goes out of his way throughout the pages of the book to credit by name dozens of Pfizer employees, each of whom played an invaluable role in the nine-month process of research, manufacturing and delivery of the vaccine.
Successful business leaders are forged in the crucible of crisis. Outside of the two world wars, it is a stretch to conjure up a greater world catastrophe in the last one hundred years than the pandemic that erupted in China in the waning months of 2019 and spread around the globe with lethal speed and catastrophic loss of life in 2020. A mere fifteen months into the role of CEO, Dr. Bourla, found himself instantly thrust onto the front line of battle. The normal corporate decision-making model—deliberately designed to prevent the accumulation of undue risk for shareholders—consists of a process of investigation, deliberation and consultation before reaching a conclusion. Dr. Bourla tossed that protocol out the window and made decisions that defied the generally accepted norms of risk management. On March 19, the SWAT team went into action—a group of eleven of the most senior men and women at Pfizer—responsible for scientific research, testing, production, delivery, and analysis of efficacy.
When his team of scientists told him it would take eighteen months to develop a vaccine for testing, he responded that they had only six months. He discarded the normal process of sequential staging of the steps of production and demanded that manufacturing facilities be established during the research and testing phases. The risk, of course, was that if the product was unsuccessful, Pfizer stood to lose billions of dollars of invested capital. But that was a risk Dr. Bourla knew he had to take—human lives trumped shareholders’ rights. Return on investment was not part of the equation in the decision-making process; nor did he even consider accepting taxpayer money to fund any part of the project. Throughout the nine-month process from research till the day an elderly woman in northern England received the first vaccine, Dr. Bourla’s mantra was a simple one: TIME IS LIFE. Time wasted meant lives lost.
Within days, the scientific team recommended BioNTech—one of the manufacturers of the mRNA molecule, a promising but not yet proved technology—as the ideal partner in the production of the vaccine. Pfizer had already been working with the company on other projects, and Dr. Bourla accepted their proposal, despite his own second thoughts. What would normally be a months-long process of crafting a commercial agreement between the two companies was condensed into a few days, and on April 9, only three weeks after the SWAT team was formed, the two companies signed a collaboration agreement to codevelop an mRNA based vaccine. The manufacturing and commercial agreements were left unfinished and the companies moved forward in a partnership of trust. BioNTech, a small company, did not have the capital to ramp up sufficient production of mRNA. In a deal that carried significant financial risks, Pfizer paid over $600 million to fund its partner’s costs. If the trials were unsuccessful, Pfizer would be out that money; if they were successful, BioNTech would repay the money and the two companies would split the profits.
At times, Moonshot reads like a thriller. The day of reckoning came just seven months after inking the deal with BioNTech—when the results of the phase 3, randomized, double-blind clinical trial would be available to Pfizer and BioNTech. The 150 clinical trial sites had included more than 43,000 participants, diversified both racially and geographically. Efficacy of a minimum of 50% was the requirement set by the FDA to approve a new vaccine. The two companies were aiming for results that would reach 60 percent efficacy. Pfizer’s executive leadership team from around the world gathered in person and remotely on the morning of Sunday, November 8 to receive the report from the data analysts. The news they received, which in short order had spread around the world, was astonishing—a success rate of 95 percent.
In addition to the science, business and financial elements of Moonshot’s story, Dr. Bourla, in numerous asides, shows the human side—sharing the real life crises that members of the team were experiencing during those early months of the virus’ devastation. He also tells the story, poignant in these times of trouble in Israel and Gaza, that it pleased him that he, a child of holocaust survivors, and a Greek Jewish immigrant to the United States, made the deal with BioNTech, whose husband-and-wife cofounders—Dr. Ugur Şahin and Dr. Özlem Türeci—are Turkish Muslims who immigrated to Germany.
Moonshot should appeal to a wide array of readers—from those who wonder how the COVID-19 vaccine miracle was achieved, to those who are skeptical about the breadth and depth of the trials, as well as those whose interests lie in the geopolitical, business and scientific aspects of the project. The fourteen-page bibliography is impressive and a testament to the book’s authenticity. Dr. Bourla’s dedication of the book is both thoughtful and appropriate and includes: the more than five million people who lost their lives to COVID-19; their families and loved ones; the 250 million patients who were infected, fought, and survived; the more than 46,000 patients who participated in the vaccine’s clinical trials; the Pfizer colleagues and their families; BioNTech—in particular Ugur Şahin and Özlem Türeci; and finally his wife, Myriam, and their children, Mois and Selise.