Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla tried distancing himself from the COVID mRNA vaccines on Friday, suggesting he only developed the “counterintuitive” technology under pressure from colleagues.
In a Washington Post Live special titled, “Moonshot: Inside Pfizer’s Nine-Month Race to Make the Impossible Possible”, host Jonathon Capehart asked Bourla on Thursday why Pfizer decided to pursue experimental mRNA vaccines despite the nascency of the developing technology.
“When you and your colleague were trying to decide which route to go down: the traditional vaccine route or the mRNA route. You write that it was ‘most counterintuitive’ to go the mrNA route. And yet, you went that route. Explain why,” Capehart said.
Bourla explained the mRNA decision “was counterintuitive because Pfizer was mastering- or let’s say we had very good experience and expertise with multiple technologies that could give a vaccine, and the Novartis that some of the vaccines are, we were very good in doing that. Protein vaccines, we were very good in doing that and plus many other technologies.”
