Moonshot: Inside Pfizer's Nine-Month Race to Make the Impossible Possible

by Albert Bourla

Wall Street Journal Bestseller 2022 Genesis Prize Laureate Axiom Award Bronze Medalist for Business Intelligence / Innovation The exclusive, first-hand, behind-the-scenes story of how Pfizer raced to create the first Covid-19 vaccine, told by Pfizer’s Chairman and CEO Dr. Albert Bourla. A riveting, fast-paced, inside look at one of the most incredible private sector achievements in history, Moonshot recounts the intensive nine months in 2020 when the scientists at Pfizer, under the visionary leadership of Dr. Albert Bourla, made “the impossible possible”—creating, testing, and manufacturing a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine that previously would have taken years to develop.  Dr. Bourla chronicles how the brilliant, dedicated minds at Pfizer, under the enormous strains of the global pandemic, overcame a series of crises that were compounded by social and political unrest, and reveals the doubts, decisions, obstacles, and failures they encountered. As Dr. Bourla makes clear, Pfizer’s success wasn’t due to luck; it was because of preparation driven by four simple values—Courage, Excellence, Equity, and Joy. Moonshot is a story of leadership under the most unprecedented circumstances—how Dr. Bourla, a Greek immigrant, a child of Holocaust survivors, and a veterinarian, became the head of one of the world’s largest corporations and initiated a dramatic transformation of the organization just before a global health crisis would serve to test the organization, its scientists, and its leader, like never before. Moonshot describes best practices that can be used to address the multiple, unprecedented challenges our world faces, reveals Pfizer’s implementation of scientific breakthroughs at a record-breaking pace, and offers leadership lessons that can help anyone successfully manage their own seemingly unsolvable problems. As Dr. Bourla explains, “I am sharing the story of our moonshot—the challenges we faced, the lessons we learned, and the core values that allowed us to make it happen—in hopes that it might inspire and inform your own moonshot, whatever that may be.”

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Business, History, Health, Audiobook, Medicine

240 pages, Hardcover

First published March 8, 2022

Reviews

[Sharon Orlopp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pfizer's CEO, Albert Bourla, does a phenomenal job describing Pfizer's ability within nine short months to create a COVID vaccination. It's all about partnership, collaboration, innovation, challenging yourself and the team, focusing on saving lives, and never giving up.

The Foreward is written by President Jimmy Carter who knows how critical medicine is for eradicating diseases. Bourla closes the book with his admiration for President Carter, who among many of his accomplishments has written 30 books.

Bourla has many leadership lessons and gems throughout the book, including:

* Luck never comes to the unprepared

* Don't aim to be the biggest, aim to be the best

* Optimize successes and turn the page to new and better horizons

* Focus on changing patients' lives

* What is obvious is not always right

* Thinking big makes the impossible possible

Highly recommend!!

[Henk · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting account of the break neck speed development of a whole new way of vaccine production
Because when science wins, we all win

In Moonshot: Inside Pfizer's Nine-Month Race to Make the Impossible Possible we follow the development of the first mRNA vaccine. Albert Bourla has an unique perspective on the subject as CEO of Pfizer. The book is quite accessible and easy to read, scientific concepts are explained well, and a lot of the book is more about the logistics and politics then the science itself. The start of the book is about the transformation Pfizer went through after Bourla became CEO, focussing more on biotech and innovation, and putting patients first.
I liked how personal stories of patients being hung on the boardroom wall, as a reminder to put patients first, were used to reinforce this idea.

When Covid hit, three priorities were set, to keep workers safe, to facilitate health care workers around the world with medicine and (most importantly) to develop a vaccine against the virus.
When the experimental mRNA has been selected as most promising, a contract with BioNTech needs to be set up, as this is the party that has the requisite scientific knowledge in the field. Also massive freezer farms to store 100 million doses are needed, since the vaccine needs to be cooled, with Pfizer moving into the production of dry ice and special containers to transport doses.
USD 2 billion investment are approved, and it is very clear that when the limits of money and cost efficiencies fall away, much more is possible and a revolutionary outcome is within reach. In general I was surprised that the manufacturing department of Pfizer employs 26.000 people.

Perfect is usually the enemy of good Bourla mentions, but the decisions the project team make are essential to effective production down the line. Time is life is another adagium, with the team in a pressure cooker and data analysts receiving results at 1.30 in the night and delivering at 4.00 in the morning.

Also there are nice anekdotes on the secret service taking the hard drives with the approval documents to the FDA, to keep the vaccine safe from leaks or corporate espionage.

The US blocking any export from their vaccine production sites, while the Belgian facility exported more than 150m vaccines to non-EU countries in 2021 also gives pause to think on the importance of local production capacity.

Sometimes the book is a little too selfserving, for instance in the price setting of the vaccine, with initial price calculations indicating that USD600 per dose was a fair price, or in the vehement resistance against sharing patents. Still I found it interesting how much is possible when a singular purpose is pursued by a multinational and it also made me think of the geopolitical importance of having medicine and vaccine production facilities in one's borders during a crisis.

[Jonathan · Rating 1 out of 5]

2/10

I wonder if somehow I read a different book then everyone else who seemed to have liked "Moonshot". Maybe others like self aggrandizing propaganda more than me, or perhaps they are unaware that Bourla sold five million dollars worth of stock immediately after releasing an update that Pfizer had promising data on a Covid vaccine. He claims this was decided beforehand, but he knew when the press conference releasing the trial results was going to be, and obviously could have just chosen that date. He tries very hard to pretend that Pfizer is a humanitarian company that did not profit off of Covid, while conveniently not mentioning the exorbitant profits they experienced in the last two years. Bourla also apparently has a temper, as employee's routinely complain of him shouting at and berating underlings. He chalks this up to the stress of "saving the world" (he actually says this) and cultural differences. I was unaware that being an a-hole was cultural. Bourla appears to be a narcissist, or at the very least he has an insufferable ego and can't write.

Obviously, none of this counteracts the fact that it's truly incredible that BioNTech and Pfizer created an effect vaccine so quickly. That part is truly incredible, and I hope someone eventually writes a book about that instead of about how right Bourla was about everything.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bourla's perspective, as Pfizer's CEO, gives him a very different perspective on the race to develop and deliver a Covid vaccine. While it is from a high level, there are enough details, from a wide enough variety of areas, that the story remains interesting, complementary to the other vaccine books I've read recently.

While the content and tone is mostly good, Bourla does occasionally come across as a bit of a slime. For example, when he complains about news of his stock sales, he neglects to mention his $25 million/year compensation. He talks about the need for shared sacrifice, while the only sacrifice he can name for himself is taking phone calls from prime Ministers occasionally at odd hours. I am sympathetic to the drug industry, but his arguments for higher drug prices are also fairly tone deaf.

> We will move materials for our existing product out of our current warehouses to temporary locations and convert these warehouses to freezer farms, each the size of a football field.” “Freezer farms?” I asked. “Yes, freezer farms. We will install five hundred big freezers that each has the capacity to store three hundred thousand doses. In total we can store over one hundred million doses there. We will do the same in our manufacturing site in Belgium for the European production.”

> We huddled together as a team, studying the data we had and projecting what was possible. Even though there was a lot of white space in the second puzzle, it appeared to be more promising. With our original deadline approaching, we decided to wait another week for more data, because we sensed that the choice we made would make a huge difference in the success of the vaccine. Postponing our deadline by a week on this project was a very big decision

> We jumped from our chairs and started celebrating. Sally, Doug, and Yolanda were screaming. I felt like I was wearing one of those wingsuits, flying above mountains and green valleys. … As we toasted this amazing moment, I remember my eyes being drawn to the two Pfizer executive protection officers who were with us that day. They were silent as they usually are, but they had realized what was happening, and you could feel that they were seriously moved. One of them almost had tears in his eyes.

> I started receiving news that President Trump was extremely dissatisfied with Pfizer and me personally because the results had come after the November 3 election. He was forming an opinion that this was done on purpose to hurt him and that if we’d wanted, we could have had the results before the elections. The same sources were telling me that Health and Human Services Secretary Azar was thinking the same and was among the people who kept feeding the president’s anger. … President Trump never called me, either to thank Pfizer or to complain.

> After we announced the results of our Phase 3 study on November 9, the stock crossed the limit price at one point during that day, and Fidelity executed the sale automatically. I was not even aware that the sale was executed for an additional day until Fidelity informed me about the transaction. Once this information became public, the same TV shows and newspapers that had been glorifying me two days before started casting doubts, as if my sale were motivated by something I’d known would happen on November 9. I was not used to this kind of attention, and I was devastated. I could feel for the first time in my life the other side of being a public figure, and how fast things can change, even if just two days ago you “saved the world.”

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read some reviews and I agree this reminds me of a corporate memo. Most of the book seems written with the hindsight of a successful vaccine. Albert Bourla seemed to underplay the uncertainty the pandemic caused and breezed over the process to make difficult decisions. I wish there was more discussion on the technical decision making and less on the political atmosphere. Politics are part of the story, but it seemed most of the technical decisions were summarized in 1/3 of the book and the political was 2/3 of the book.

[Jarshark · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is an interesting insight if you are wondering what it was like to be in the top position of Pfizer during the pandemic. But prepare yourself to ignore all the promotion and advertising for Pfizer as a whole and for the CEO (the writer) in general. Seldomly will he admit his doubts or mistakes. It almost seems like he prepared the company for an upcoming pandemic, that is how proud he is of the direction he has taken a few years before the pandemic. No one in the world was more prepared for this crisis as Pfizer was.
Besides that, apparently, it is very important to name every migration background and foreign study experience of all the employees that get named. The author also deemed it important to tell the tale of the experience of his Jewish family during the holocaust and how it influences his daily business career. As a European, it always surprises me how heavy American descendants focus on this aspect, where European counterparts do not. (I don't know how this is for Asian people of the same generation)
In general, this is a very American-style book. In the epilogue, it is stated that Pfizer aimed to increase transparency and the status of the pharmacy industry. In my opinion, they achieved neither.
One could make a good drinking game out of the book. Drink for every non-American heritage, every high politician name drop, every puffing up of own chest, every management decision that prepared for a pandemic etc.

If you know nothing about vaccines or pharmacy, it might be an interesting read. But I advise keeping a critical eye while reading.

[Taivo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pfizer's glorification, politics, corporate operations, and other high level stuff. Very little to none technical stuff.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed the details of Pfizers development of a Covid vaccine. Written by the CEO Albert Bourla he does a great job of laying out the ket risks and decisions they needed to make and how they completely redesigned the testing and supply chain processes to quickly produce millions of vaccines. You cant help but be impressed by his leadership and global impact

[CKG · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was more moved by this than I expected to be. It’s an incredible story. We’re already habituated to having vaccines easily accessible, but this is a reminder of how improbable and impressive that feat of ingenuity was. It make a good movie (a better one would be more expansive to include the narratives on multiple vaccine producing orgs, to see the different decisions and probabilities play out) with all the drama and heroics we expect of sports movies, but with scientists as heroes.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book made me emotional several times. It is a tremendous achievement, and we get a glimpse of the inside story from Pfizer on how everything came together. From research, phased clinical trials, manufacturing, navigating the messy political world and trying to ensure equitable distribution, 9 months was an incredible timeline and internally referred to as Project Lightspeed.

I found Pfizer’s conversations with political leaders really interesting, especially the Trump Administration’s handling of the situation.

I think towards the end of the book some parts felt a bit fluffy, like Pfizer’s commitments, the importance of science, etc, and it sounded like a corporate CEO talking missions statements. But overall it was a really enjoyable read.

[Melanie Hoffman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Science will win. Great read!

[Mad Hab · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you ignore the typical corporate “we put people first, profits second” kind of fluff—which makes up about 90% of the book—there are maybe one or two genuinely interesting moments.

[Cara Putman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating behind the scenes look — love that my 15 year old inhaled it too.

[Maddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The COVID vaccine is my favorite invention of the 21st century. Second is the Instant Pot.

[Shadira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the most interesting parts of the book describe events after Pfizer’s vaccine began to be rolled out in different countries. One of the single boldest and, in retrospect, best decisions of the pandemic was that of the British government to massively ramp up its vaccination efforts in January 2021. The country had been eager to move past the virus and declare it endemic (sound familiar?) but was instead slammed by the alpha variant.

Over that bleak winter, Britain saw greater pandemic mortality than the United States has experienced at any stage, but the toll could have been even worse were it not for an accelerated campaign conducted during a desperate lockdown: Public health authorities raced to get vaccines into people before the virus reached them. According to “Moonshot,” Britain was the beneficiary of the Trump administration’s failure to promptly distribute its own doses of the vaccine, gaining 3 million extra shots. Future doctoral theses will be required to estimate how many lives were saved.

Similarly, a close collaboration with Israel provided some of the best data on how the vaccines performed in the real world in which immunity can wane, and against a nimble virus that continues to churn out variants. The book is correct that Pfizer’s vaccine, like the others, stands up remarkably well when it comes to preventing the worst consequences of infection. In 2020, the goal was to produce a vaccine that would provide as good or better protection than immunity following infection, so we need not face the virus completely unprepared. We are fortunate that we have multiple vaccines in our arsenal. “Moonshot” is studiously silent about these competitors, which were produced on a schedule almost as rapid as that of Pfizer.


It makes a few errors of fact — at one point confusing the alpha and delta variants, for instance — and chapters on vaccine equity are too shallow to be satisfying contributions to discussions on that important issue.

Yet Bourla’s character and enthusiasm — when they emerge — lift his narrative. For instance, an account of his parents’ narrow escape from the Greek port city of Thessaloníki during the Holocaust is moving in itself, but in noting the fate of Jewish family members less fortunate, he also reflects on those we have lost, the value of human life and how it can be bettered, and his voice shines off the page.

“Moonshot” might inspire others to devote themselves to the hard work of making effective vaccines heaven knows we need them for diseases including tuberculosis, malaria and beyond. And none of us should forget: mRNA vaccines are an astonishing technical and logistical achievement, a marvel of the modern age. Time is life, and science will win.

[Christophe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla tells a riveting account of the race to a COVID-19 vaccine, from the perspective of the pharmaceutical giant. The company went all in in face of the pandemic and successfully delivered a vaccine in less than a year, an unprecedented feat. This book is the story of the excruciating decisions that had to be made early on, of the many challenges that had to be overcome, and of a CEO pushing an entire company toward excellence. It is a compelling story in many ways, and the urgency of the situation is vividly conveyed in a clear and direct style. Instead of spending time on scientific aspects, the author emphasizes the leadership, logistical, and political challenges that he faced. Especially interesting was how the CEO navigated the ethical and political aspects of allocating doses of a life-saving vaccine in short supply. Bourla uses this opportunity to set the record straight about Pfizer’s interactions with Operation Warp Speed and the Trump administration, as well as to advocate for a strong private sector fueled by the respect of intellectual property. He admits his own mistakes and shares personal details throughout the book, making this account more relatable than most memoirs from CEOs. Bourla is guilty of self-promotion quite often, but it is forgivable considering the enormous accomplishment delivered by Pfizer under his leadership. There is historical value to this story, with lessons about the need to reinvent ourselves in the face of adversity, to achieve what was thought impossible.

[Taylor Britton · Rating 1 out of 5]

The boastful arrogance of this man made this book almost entirely intolerable. When he was not bragging about being the CEO or meeting the president he was complimenting other people by way of comparing them to himself and then going on about how great they were. He also explains how he was pushy, unrealistic irritable and rude but it was all worth it because he supposedly saved the world.

He kept going on and on about how they were "Making the impossible possible" (mostly him of course). This is an oxymoron and even if he just means that they were doing something very difficult there is a part in the book where he briefly explains abandoning an option because it was, quote "impossible."

The very title of the book which relates the search for the vaccine to the trip to the moon is flimsy at best. It has no correlation and every time he compared the two it was an unreasonable stretch.

Over all this book was just a giant flex about a vaccine that he admits in the book looses it's effectiveness over time. He also recognizes that the vaccine was not even approved for children under the age of 16! Also he claims over and over again that they did not cut corners he does explain in detail that they took every possible short cut. Including shorter testing times.

The most interesting part of this book was his family history. It has nothing at all to do with the vaccine and I would have much rather read a book about that.

[Dogsandbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

The rough draft of history as it happens. Corporate self congratulatory but oh what a story. What a miracle. There will be more versions and more voices to tell this story but it is absolutely astonishing. Miraculous. Inspiring and hopeful. Science wins.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Firstly, I am a (25 year) Pfizer colleague. The views expressed here are completely my own. I did not work on the COVID-19 vaccine project.

I found this book incredibly moving and inspiring. Hearing from our CEO about what occurred behind the scenes to facilitate the development and then Emergency Use Authorization of the COVID-19 vaccine in 9 months was fascinating (and subsequent full BLA approval). Albert Bourla is incredibly impressive, and it’s an honor to work for him.

I respect and admire his transparency about the stress he felt, how he took it out on his team, and his resultant (poor) leadership scores. I found it heartwarming to read of the data analyst who lost WiFi at home and worked outside a gas station at 2 am with a police escort to crunch data from the pivotal clinical trial. And it was heartbreaking to read the story of his parents’ experiences during WWII as Jews in Greece.

As a colleague said to me, Albert Bourla is “a force of nature”. I am so proud to work for him and for Pfizer.

#PFEcolleague #PFEproud #ScienceWillWin

[Phil Busch · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great, fast read. I enjoyed hearing Dr. Bourla’s point of view on the historical time we have all just lived through.

His strategy of shredding internal bureaucracy at Pfizer to develop the vaccine was a great formula for getting big things done in corporate America. Bring the right people together, set the bar high, and communicate often about the right things.

I also enjoyed hearing how he managed relationships with political figures worldwide, government agencies, and even Pfizer’s competition. The relationships he fostered did not need to be perfect all the time. They only needed to be effective at the right times.

[Marks54 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells the story of how Pfizer and its partner BioNTech developed their MRNA based vaccine against COVID-19. It is told by Pfizer’s CEO - Dr. Albert Bourla. The book is a positive largely chronological narrative organized by chapters that focus on the particular issues of interest at the time during the first year and a half of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a spellbinding account, although I suspect almost everybody how how things turned out.

It is easy to fail to appreciate just how titanic an achievement this effort was. Successful vaccines took years and years to develop while this effort took the better part of a year. The MRNA technology - used by Pfizer and Moderna - was itself almost completely new, especially for vaccine development. The production and logistics/distribution details of the effort posed similarly huge and unprecedented challenges. Then add to all of this the nearly complete politicization of the virus and you have to wonder how any vaccine was developed. For the last comparable threat to global health - the 1918-1919 Spanish Flu, the death toll was huge but there weren’t any vaccines. The technology was not there to identify the pathogen much less do anything about it.

It is really amazing.

So if Dr. Bourla wants to write a detailed account of the company effort on the vaccine and its distribution, that is fine with me. The entire book is very readable and clear for non-scientists — although I must admit that my eyes started getting foggy in the discussion of the production processes for mass producing the vaccine. Bourla does a good job of tying in his personal history and providing some background on his management team and family, although not too much. He us also good at ty\ing in the business aspects of process, especially on topics such as international pricing and the details of different contractual agreements. The political and international aspects of the vaccine are strong points of the book, as is the discussion of the important relationship with Israel in generating important research findings. The concluding chapters try to link the search for the vaccine in OWS (Operation Warp Speed) with broader issues linking medical research, biopharma, and the COVID crisis. This gets away from the central narrative line of the book and follows predictable lines about integrating medical research and tech developments, the importance of digital technology and telemedicine, and the prospects for improvements through smarter regulations. These are all interesting areas, but they were important before COVID. The book could have actually done more with analyzing how COVID disrupted conventional health care along with broader business areas and major health care providers ended up suffering from the loss of their regular business addressing chronic conditions and regularly scheduled processes. Why go to the hospital and catch COVID?

The story is continuing, of course. I just received my second booster (Pfizer, of course) and life is only starting to return to normal in Spring 2022. I hope it stays that way.

I know that the pandemic has been especially well covered in the popular media, especially the NYT and the WAPO, but this book recounts a key part of the first year of the pandemic from a knowledgeable insider who is committed to transparency. Even if one knows the basic story, this fine book is well worth reading.

[Γιώτα Παπαδημακοπούλου · Rating 2 out of 5]

Διαβάστε το review στο site μας:
https://www.culture21century.gr/2022/...

Τα τελευταία δυόμιση χρόνια τα έχουμε ζήσει μέσα σε ένα ευρύτερο κλίμα παράνοιας. Ο Covid-19 ήρθε κι έφερε τα πάνω κάτω στις συνήθειές μας, στην καθημερινότητά μας, στη ρουτίνα μας, στην ψυχολογία μας, μα περισσότερο από κάθε τι άλλο στις σχέσεις μας με τον κόσμο και τους ανθρώπους γύρω μας. Τουλάχιστον, έτσι το αντιλαμβάνομαι εγώ, ρίχνοντας απλά μια ματιά στον περίγυρό μου. Τα Μ.Μ.Ε. φρόντισαν να σπείρουν τον τρόμο και τον πανικό, με αποτέλεσμα όλη η κατάσταση να γιγαντωθεί, όχι τόσο πρακτικά, όσο περισσότερο ψυχολογικά, παίρνοντας τερατώδεις διαστάσεις μέσα στα μυαλά των ανθρώπων, τα οποία τροφοδοτούσαν συνεχώς με εικόνες Αποκάλυψης μέσω των δελτίων ειδήσεων. Και μετά, όλοι περίμεναν το μαγικό εμβόλιο που θα έλυνε τα πάντα -και, ω, τι παράξενο... δεν έλυσε απολύτως τίποτα!- και θα παίρναμε και πάλι πίσω τις ζωές μας. Και στο σημείο αυτό δεν ξέρω αν πρέπει να κλάψω ή να γελάσω!

Το εμβόλιο, λοιπόν, δημιουργήθηκε σε χρόνο ρεκόρ και διατέθηκε στην αγορά σε ακόμα μεγαλύτερο χρόνο ρεκόρ, με πολλούς να υποστηρίζουν πως η τεχνολογία και η επιστήμη έχουν προχωρήσει και πως πλέον δεν απαιτούνται χρόνια για τη δημιουργία κατάλληλων φαρμάκων για την κάθε περίπτωση, αλλά και ότι κάτω απ' τις παρούσες συνθήκες δεν υπήρχε χρόνος για χάσιμο και για μακρόχρονες δοκιμές και πειραματισμούς. Κοινώς... η φάση ήταν "Mayday, mayday! Χιούστον, έχουμε πρόβλημα!", ή τουλάχιστον έτσι αρέσκονταν να την παρουσιάζουν. Anyway, που λένε και οι φίλοι μας οι Άγγλοι, την όλη παράνοια με τα εμβόλια, εκτός από τις εταιρείες που τα έβγαλαν στην αγορά, εκμεταλλεύτηκαν και πολλοί άλλοι, ανάμεσά τους άνθρωποι οι οποίοι αποφάσισαν να γράψουν βιβλία σχετικά με αυτά, για το πως δημιουργήθηκαν, τη διαδικασία παραγωγής, τον αντίκτυπο που είχαν και οτιδήποτε άλλο περιστρεφόταν γύρω από αυτά. Ένας απ' αυτούς και ο Δρ. Άλμπερτ Μπουρλά, ηγετική κεφαλή της Pfizer, με ό,τι αυτό συνεπάγεται.

Το βιβλίο είναι αυτό που πολύ λαϊκά θ' αποκαλούσαμε... αμερικανιά. Ουσιαστικά, προσπαθεί να υποστηρίξει τη θέση διαφάνειας της εταιρείας σε όλο αυτό το τσίρκο συμφερόντων που ξέσπασε με την κυκλοφορία των εμβολίων στην αγορά, αλλά και την υποστήριξη της ευρύτερης διαφάνειας που πρέπει να επικρατεί στον φαρμακευτικό κλάδο, αλλά αν θέλετε την ταπεινή μου άποψη, αποτυγχάνει παταγωδώς να το πετύχει. Το πιο σημαντικό, όμως, είναι το γεγονός πως δεν εστιάζει τόσο όσο θα έπρεπε στα τεχνικά μέρη, όπου αυτά θα είχαν πραγματικό ενδιαφέρον, ειδικά για τους ανθρώπους εκείνους που δεν γνωρίζουν πολλά γύρω από τη βιομηχανία των φαρμάκων και την παραγωγή εμβολίων, αλλά επιλέγει να σταθεί περισσότερο στο πολιτικό κομμάτι που αφορά αυτά -ενώ δεν θα έπρεπε να παίζονται πολιτικά παιχνίδια στις πλάτες της υγείας κανενός, πόσο μάλλον ολόκληρου του πλανήτη. Εν τέλει, το όλο εγχείρημα, ενώ θα μπορούσε να είναι ενδιαφέρον, καταλήγει να είναι εκνευριστικό και στερείται πληροφοριών και ουσίας.

[Faisal Chairul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Penasaran tentang bagaimana proses dibalik pengembangan vaksin Pfizer-BioNTech yang memiliki efikasi sebesar 95,6% dengan teknologi mRNA yang digunakannya. Dari bagian awal hingga pertengahan, sebenarnya saya agak skeptis, karena ternyata secara garis besar konteks "Pfizer" dalam pembahasan buku ini lebih ke arah "Pfizer sebagai sebuah perusahaan", bukan "Pfizer sebagai sebuah entitas vaksin". Dengan kata lain, nuansa glorifikasi pencapaian perusahaan lebih kental. Hal ini terlihat di antaranya dari tidak adanya cerita teknis pengembangan vaksin dari sisi BioNTech, padahal pengembangan vaksin Pfizer ini dilakukan berdasarkan partnership antara Pfizer dengan perusahaan yang berbasis di Jerman tersebut. Sisi kesepakatan, baik itu teknis maupun finansial, memang dibahas, tapi tanpa pembahasan sejauh apa peran BioNTech rasanya buku ini belum lengkap.

Cerita kembali menarik ketika memasuki bagian "Equity", tentang bagaimana memastikan distribusi vaksin merata di seluruh dunia. Ternyata, tantangan yang dihadapi pun lumayan menantang, bahkan untuk perusahaan sebesar Pfizer dengan vaksin yang menggunakan teknologi mRNA dan memiliki efikasi 95,6%. Disparitas terus berkembang, dengan hanya negara-negara maju yang memanfaatkan privilise yang diberikan, terlepas dari privilese yang lebih besar yang diberikan kepada negara-negara middle- dan low-income (<$20 per vaksin untuk negara middle-income dan gratis untuk negara low-income). CEO Albert Bourla (penulis) menceritakan kalau ia pernah menolak permintaan agresif AS, negara tempat perusahaannya bernaung, untuk memberikan jutaan dosis tambahan dalam waktu sempit yang mengharuskan Pfizer mengalihkan stok yang diperuntukkan untuk negara-negara lain, sebagai bentuk "fairness" yang dijunjung tinggi Albert sejak awal memutuskan untuk mengembangkan vaksin COVID-19.

Tidak hanya cerita tentang kesuksesan, ada pula cerita tentang "kekeliruan". Suatu waktu, Perdana Menteri Inggris Boris Johnson meminta 3 juta dosis tambahan dalam waktu mendesak dan CEO Pfizer Albert Bourla, dengan pertimbangan dari timnya, menyanggupinya. Namun ternyata, tim mereka melakukan kesalahan penghitungan stok vaksin sehingga permintaan dari PM Boris Johnson itu tidak bisa mereka penuhi. CEO Albert Bourla pun menceritakan sikap kebijaksanaan yang ia ambil ketika mengatasi kekeliruan tersebut.

[Will Shore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really cool read, but I was hoping it would be a bit more dramatic. Bourla does a great job recapping the high level strategy implemented by Pfizer at this time, as well as the roadblocks posed by governments around the world.

However, I wish he could’ve dived deeper into certain issues surrounding the vaccine, especially with misinformation that caught like wildfire around 2020 and 2021.

I’d recommend it if you’re looking for something to make you feel smarter at the Thanksgiving table 🤷‍♂️

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ultimately it’s a book about the amazing accomplishments of a corporation written by the CEO of that corporation. Nonetheless it was interesting to read about the development of the COVID-19 vaccine from the CEO’s perspective, including his frank thoughts about private conversations he had with world leaders. 4/5 stars because it’s not anything that will stick with me, but was as-described.

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it was an inspirational read, a good look into effective and positive leadership. I’m not a huge non-fiction gal so this took me a bit longer but I think it’s good for people who like that kind of read.

[Melissa Greenberg Cannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Albert Bourla, in his book Moonshot, relays the unprecedented achievements and steadfast commitment in Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine journey. Bourla expresses himself as a driven, extroverted, compassionate CEO of a major pharmaceutical company that contributed life-saving science during the worst pandemic in a century. Woven into the fast-paced, no-nonsense narrative is Bourla’s personal experience and family story that enriches these feats and brings a sense of historical relevance and posterity to this remarkable moment in time. Bourla gives credit throughout the book to his Pfizer team as well as governments and B2B relationships that made each step of the Pfizer vaccine’s success possible. The details of the science and logistics are fascinating, the emotional attributes and gravity of the pandemic are striking. At the end of several chapters I found myself tearing up with a swell of different emotions. Bourla speaks to the incredible loss of life but also the hope of science.

[Jon Gaide · Rating 5 out of 5]

As much as I didn’t want it to, this book breathed some humanity into Big Pharma. Bourla is a great writer—not sure how he made the graphic Holocaust scenes (not kidding) fit in so well to a vaccine book, but somehow he did—and seems like a great leader.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thoughtful and clearly written.

[Nandita Daga · Rating 4 out of 5]

started reading in Elliot Bay
finished in bathtub …good vibes

this totally reads like it’s been written by a CEO. so many times I would read a paragraph and just feel like he was defending himself / trying to paint a better picture of Pfizer than what it likely is. At the same time, he acknowledges a lot of the mistakes and challenges he experienced & so there’s some reflection. Thought the detail he gave on all the politics behind vaccine development and rollout was really interesting, especially with all the nationalism.

Overall - definitely insightful and a good, quick read