Pfizer chief: vaccine success was down to 'thinking big'

Anne Gulland global health security correspondent 08 December 2020 5:30pm GMT Coronavirus Article Bar with counter .. The boss of the pharmaceutical firm Pfizer, whose Covid-19 vaccine made

history by becoming the first in the world to be administered as part of a mass vaccination campaign on Tuesday, said that the development of a safe and effective jab in just 10 months was

down to “courage”. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told an online press briefing that the “power of science” and the “power of the private sector” were crucial in the rapid development of vaccines

as well as treatments and diagnostics.  But he added: “But if you asked me to describe it in words I would say ‘courage’. People needed to think very big … they needed to think outside the

box. If we do things the way we have always done them we would never be able to develop a safe and effective solution.” Mr Bourla paid tribute to everyone who worked on the shot, developed

with German biotech BioNTech with revolutionary mRNA technology.   But he also praised trial participants who were willing to be given an untested vaccine.  “The fact that so many volunteers

raised their hands is amazing. This demonstrates that sometimes a crisis brings the best out of people.” Margaret Keenan, a 90-year-old from Coventry, became the first person in the world

to receive the vaccine outside a trial on Tuesday - an event described as a “watershed moment” by the UK’s chief scientist, Sir Patrick Vallance. There was more good news for the Pfizer

BioNTech vaccine today when the US Food and Drug Administration said the jab met its safety and efficacy criteria. However, Mr Bourla would not speculate when the FDA would give the shot the

green light.  “That is not for me to decide or predict,” he said.  He also stressed that the vaccine was safe, adding “we didn’t cut any corners”.  He said he understood the concerns around

the speed at which the vaccines had been developed. "Always there are people who are sceptical about vaccines, but I have to say they are wrong," he said. "I can imagine that

in this case, because the products, the vaccines or the medicines are developed very fast that it is even worse because it has been severely politicised, particularly in the US. "That

makes people confused. They don't know who to believe and what to believe, because the discussion was happening on political rather than on scientific terms." But he stressed that

the companies were intent on ensuring that only safe and effective vaccines make it to market, and "the regulators are very careful." He added: "The decision to vaccinate, or

not, is not affecting only your health. It is affecting the health of others, and likely the health of people you love. "If you don't vaccinate you are becoming the weak link that

will allow the virus to replicate."  The briefing, organised by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), also heard that 1,000 different

treatments had been tested and 2,000 clinical trials had taken place.  Dr Severin Schwab, chief executive of Roche, which has developed diagnostics for Covid, said that pandemic was a

success story for private companies who had “driven innovation”. He praised firms such as Johnson and Johnson, which has pledged not to make a profit on its vaccine, currently in

development.  “It’s a good model in a crisis but I don't think it can be a standard for sustainable innovation in the long term,” he said. _PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY BY LEARNING

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