Thread by @BRAINCURES

In 2018, @pfizer had turned to Kathrin and her research team to identify a partnership that would advance mRNA development for a game-changing seasonal flu vaccine. During the #partnership search, she made fast friends with the Turkish-German cofounder and BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin

https://twitter.com/albertbourla/status/1499085670052245504

Pfizer signed a collaboration agreement to codevelop a first-in-class, mRNA-based coronavirus vaccine, aimed at preventing COVID-19 infection. BioNTech received $72 million up-front & was eligible for future milestone payments of an additional $563 million
amazon.com/Moonshot-Pfize…

In addition, we were going to provide $113 million in cash to @BioNTech_Group by buying equity from the company. The two parties agreed to share all development costs and profits fifty-fifty. If the project failed, @pfizer would bear all the losses alone

https://twitter.com/braincures/status/1602447461309636608?s=21

Although we didn't agree to all the terms two companies normally would address, we did agree that BioNTech would have commercialization rights of the potential vaccine in Germany and Turkey, and Pfizer $PFE would hold these rights in the rest of the world
goodreads.com/en/book/show/5…

Under normal circumstances, the development of a vaccine takes years. Many of these projects fail. In the case of human immunodeficiency virus-HIV, scientists have been working on a #vaccine for decades, & we still don't have one available
#endAIDS #16Days
amazon.com/Moonshot-Pfize…

I knew that it would be painful to take a $2 billion write-off in my second year as CEO if the project failed. But I also knew that it would not take the company down & it was the right thing to do. I called @Adobe’s Shantanu Narayen to discuss it with him
amazon.com/Moonshot-Pfize…

Bourla told the global presidents of Pfizer units that they should each consider their unit like an entrepreneurial biotech company, with the presidents of each unit acting as CEOs and with him in the role of the CEO of a private equity firm that owns them
amazon.com/Moonshot-Pfize…

A private equity firm does three things with the biotechs they own:
First, it appoints their management
Second, it agrees with their #management on the strategic direction
Third, it allocates capital to them. You will have to compete for that
@AlbertBourla
amazon.com/Moonshot-Pfize…

We held meetings twice weekly from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m., that often ran overtime. Research, manufacturing, finance, legal, and corporate affairs were all represented with two, three, or more layers of management as needed. Bourla acted as the project manager
amazon.com/Moonshot-Pfize…

The CEO can knock down silos, hear everyone out, and quickly move things forward. Everyone on this team was encouraged to agree or disagree, oppose or encourage. But at the end of the meeting, decisions could be made fast because I was there
-@AlbertBourla
amazon.com/Moonshot-Pfize…

In typical meetings with the CEO, people usually have a lot of premeetings to align before the main meeting. With Moonshot project they had very little time for that. Data flowed and decisions were made in real time. We had a just-in-time mentality
-Bourla
amazon.com/Moonshot-Pfize…

Should we pick the vaccine that we know is good enough, or do we reach for something that might work better?

80% of the data we had was from b1, and we couldn't afford the time to develop additional data for b2.

"Perfect" is usually the enemy of "good"
amazon.com/Moonshot-Pfize…

42% overall-and approximately 30% of US participants-came from diverse backgrounds, geographically, racially, & across age groups. In the spring of 2021, @PatientView upgraded Pfizer to the second-ranking patient-centric pharmaceutical company in the world
amazon.com/Moonshot-Pfize…