Chief executives rarely consume alcohol at lunch these days, especially pharmaceutical ones. But Albert Bourla has never really fitted the mould of the typical corporate boss. As we take our seats, the Pfizer supremo asks whether I drink. “A white wine,” he suggests. “Something dry.” When the waiter starts running us through the options by the glass, he interrupts him. “No, give us a bottle, please: we are going to drink a lot.”
Bourla, to be fair, has much to celebrate. The only reason we are able to have lunch at this bustling Greek restaurant in Hudson Yards is that both of us have been jabbed with two doses of his company’s vaccine. The inoculation, developed with Germany’s BioNTech, is the most successful in the world: the first to be authorised by US regulators, it is over 95 per cent effective against the original strain of the virus, conferring the highest degree of protection of all the jabs. Pfizer has shipped more doses than any other western company, 1.2bn and counting.
As we take in the sweeping views of the Hudson River, Bourla recounts the moment he learnt of the breakthrough. He had dialled into a Zoom meeting with Pfizer’s general counsel and two statisticians. “I heard the 95 per cent, which I didn’t believe, I thought I didn’t hear it well.”