Moonshot by Albert Bourla – Story of making Pfizer Vaccine for Covid-19 – A Book Review

In the book Moonshot, Dr. Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, narrates the rollercoaster journey in finding the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and later selling it to other countries. The book was named  Moonshot because Albert was inspired by the space travel to the moon supported by President Kennedy. Albert felt that developing the vaccine was a massive exercise in problem-solving like going to the moon.

The vaccine development project was named Lightspeed – that is they had to get the vaccine at the speed of light. Pfizer partnered with the German biotech company BioNTech run by the husband-and-wife pair of Dr. Ugur Sahin and Dr. Ozlem Tureci. They planned to make 3 billion vaccine shots by 2022. BioNTech would have commercialization rights in Germany and Turkey. Pfizer would have rights in all others parts of the world excluding China. The vaccinology team at Pfizer was led by German Scientist Kathrin Jansen. Mikael Dolston was the head of research and development.

Dr. Albert Bourla - Pfizer CEO

To develop the vaccine, there were many technological platforms like adenovirus, recombinant proteins, conjugation, mRNA, and others. But selecting the mRNA technology was a difficult but right choice. Usually, vaccines contain weakened, dead, or non-infectious parts of the infectious disease agents or pathogens. When these vaccines are sent into the body, our immune system generates antibodies and T-cells against the pathogens. But, the mRNA vaccine does not have any pathogens. mRNA instructs ribosomes to produce a protein that resembles the pathogens and then the immune response starts. In a nutshell, mRNA teaches the body to make its own vaccine. The injection is a set of instructions on how to protect yourself. Because of this, boosters could be made quickly.

mRNA or Messenger RNA

Pfizer decided to come out with the vaccine in October 2020. The aim was always to compress the time taken for doing a task, say from 2 weeks to 2 days. The phrase ‘Time is Money’ was replaced with ‘Time is Life’ for the project. Whenever there was a hurdle or challenge, Albert used a sort of emotional blackmail and said, “People are dying. There is no excuse. Solve it.” Because of such motivation, Albert recollects one of the employees sending data from near a gas station as the internet was not working at his home at night.

On a Sunday, November 8, the team was elated to know that the vaccine was successful with 95.6 percent efficacy. Later, when they disclosed the news, media news around the world spoke of Pfizer’s new vaccine. Emergency use authorization was issued by the FDA on December 11, 2020.

The first 100 pages of the book talk about the discovery of the vaccine. When you think the story ends when the vaccine was found, it is when the next story starts. Pfizer faced political, bureaucratic, manufacturing, IP rights, and distribution problems before their vaccine reached the needy. The next 100 pages of the book discuss this.

Vaccine tests were conducted with 46,000 participants in 3 phases. Target investigation sites were 153 that were spread across 6 countries. Research sites had to have a heavy Covid-19 disease burden. Israel was selected to test the vaccines first. While selecting participants for testing the vaccine, diversity, equity, and inclusion were looked into.

Mike McDermott was the head of manufacturing. No mRNA product was produced in the world before. So, Pfizer had to invent, design, and order new formulation equipment. The vaccines had to be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius. So, Mike came up with the idea of starting freezer farms the size of football fields each of which could store 100 million doses at a time. Transportation would be done inside boxes with dry ice. Each box would have a GPS, thermometer, and light detector to alert whenever someone opens a box.

Freezer Farms

President Joe Biden visited the Kalamazoo manufacturing site in Michigan and listened to all the stories of the workers. The President later placed his hands on the shoulders of Albert and said, “I hear your parents survived the Holocaust.” Biden told about other families he knew who still bore those scars. It was an emotional moment for Albert and he had tears in his eyes.

Albert who is a Greek Jew immigrant shares a few personal stories in the book. Albert recollects the interesting journey of his ancestors from Spain when Jews were asked to convert to Catholicism or be expelled from the country. From there on, they migrated to Greece, faced German attack on Jews, and his mother escaped the Nazi gun-firing by a fraction of a minute.

He talks about his daughter Selise who survived cerebral palsy. He bounced off all his ideas during the vaccine journey with his son Mois. He feels his wife Myriam is like Mother Teressa. He talks about the break bar where people smash their glasses after having a drink. He fondly remembers Luis Perdomo, a chef at a Barista, who would hug his clients at times.

Pfizer made many promotional videos and documentaries about its vaccine development journey. One group at Pfizer opened an online store selling T-Shirts and other items with their tagline – Science Will Win. A human resource person told Albert that people may go in for a Pfizer tattoo. Albert thought about it for a moment but never got a tattoo.

There are a set of colourful pictures about Bourla and Pfizer in the middle of the book.

 Each chapter in the book begins with a quote. Here is one:

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others” – Pericles, 495-429 BC 

The book is a brilliant example of project management and execution during a crisis. So, go for it!