Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic

by Scott Gottlieb

Pfizer initially committed $1 billion to the project, a sum that would soon double as the company ramped up manufacturing sites across the US and Europe and started to produce the vaccine. Much of that money would pay for facilities specially designed to manufacture the mRNA vaccines. The specially formulated mRNA used in the vaccine was produced by batteries of highly specialized mixing machines that Pfizer had custom-made for the purpose at a cost of $200 million each. I remember the board meeting when we voted to buy more of them. We initially purchased five of the batteries of machines in all, at a cost of $1 billion—before we even knew if the vaccine was going to work. We would end up purchasing many more. While other companies took grants from the federal government to offset the cost of development and to pay for the investments they would need to expand their manufacturing facilities, Pfizer made a decision to forgo federal money to support the venture. Pfizer agreed in advance to sell an initial allotment of 100 million doses of vaccine to the federal government at an agreed-upon price, but only if the vaccine was successful and won FDA authorization. The US government would pay Pfizer only if the vaccine worked, and only for the doses they were buying.37 Bourla wanted it that way. He was concerned that the strings attached with federal grant money could slow the process. He wanted his scientists unencumbered. He knew that speed to market would save lives.