He has established himself as the great champion of the pandemic. The one whose vaccine has become one of the almost unavoidable weapons against Covid-19. First to arrive on the Western market in December 2020, Pfizer has managed to climb, in the space of a year, to the number one position in sales of vaccines against Covid-19, largely eclipsing its competitors, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson.
In the United States, its market shares reach almost 60%, and in Europe, they peak at 74%. A resounding victory for the New York laboratory: in 2021, sales of Comirnaty, its vaccine against Covid-19, will bring it no less than 36 billion dollars (approximately 31.8 billion euros). Unheard of for a pharmaceutical product marketed for such a short time. And the year 2022 promises to be just as good for the American industrialist, whose order book already exceeds $ 31 billion.
New technology
Such a commercial performance, built on a global health crisis, and thanks to a vaccine deemed to be one of the most expensive on the market, is surprising. But for his boss, Albert Bourla, at the head of Pfizer for barely a year at the start of the pandemic, this success is not by chance. “It wasn’t luck. It was deliberate. It is the result of hundreds of decisions that had to be taken along the way ”, insisted the business manager in February to an American business magazine.
The partnership is simple: BioNTech brings its vaccine and messenger RNA science, Pfizer provides the funds for clinical development and its industrial know-how for production
The founding stone of this success is laid in March 2020. As the world closes its borders and hospitals see a first wave of patients surging, Pfizer is approached by a small German laboratory, BioNTech, which has been working on a vaccine for several weeks. to respond to the pandemic. Biotech, which specializes in research into cancer treatments, has never yet marketed a product. Above all, it uses the technique of messenger RNA, a new technology which has never yet resulted in a pharmaceutical product approved by health authorities.
But the founders of BioNTech, Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci, are convinced of their approach. They have already developed several promising vaccine candidates against Covid-19, and need funds to conduct clinical trials. The approach is daring. And the story could have ended there. It will only finally begin. Excited, Pfizer, which had already been working with BioNTech for several years on a flu vaccine, decided to take the risk.
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