Media www.rajawalisiber.com – PRESIDENT URSULA VON DER LEYEN: Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, I first spoke to Albert Bourla ten months ago. When the pandemic hit the world, Albert decided to take a gamble. Together with President Ugur Sahin and Dr. Özlem Türeci, he decided to invest billions on a promising yet untested technology, and this is how the success story of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine started.
A vaccine based on mRNA technology had never been approved before, nor had it been produced on a mass scale. But you, Albert, trusted your work, and we trusted each other. And after you developed your vaccine against COVID-19, you launched mass production immediately without waiting for its approval, a choice that was described as risky and unorthodox. You chose to put billions of dollars at risk, because if you didn’t try, the whole world would pay the price. And by doing so, you and your team might have saved millions of lives.
The first time we met in person, after months of virtual contacts, we were in Puurs in Belgium at Pfizer’s main manufacturing site in Europe. And right there in Puurs, you have achieved what seemed unthinkable: Not only did you deliver on our initial contract —that’s a lot already—no, month after month, you started delivering ahead of schedule. It is also thanks to this that today, three European adults in four are fully vaccinated. But there is more. Pfizer’s European sites are producing vaccines for the whole world. In fact, more than half of the European vaccine production has been exported to the rest of the world, more than 860 million doses of BioNTech-Pfizer to more than 150 countries. This is serving the world, and you can be so proud of that, and we thank you for that.
With this prize, dear Albert, we celebrate your achievements and your entrepreneurial spirit. But we also celebrate your incredible partnership with Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci. You have teamed up as scientists and as fellow human beings, working together for the sake of all humanity. You have added yet another success story to the great history of our transatlantic partnership.
So let me conclude by borrowing a quote from your late mother, dear Albert. During World War II, when the Nazis occupied Greece, your mother narrowly escaped execution. And whenever she told you, Albert, that story, she would conclude, “life is miraculous, nothing is impossible, you can do anything in life.” Indeed, dear Albert, nothing is impossible. Your achievements are the best testimony for your mother’s words.
Excellencies, ladies, and gentlemen, please join me in congratulating Dr. Albert Bourla on the Atlantic Council’s Distinguished Business Leadership Award.
ALBERT BOURLA: I’m speechless. Thank you, Ursula, for these very kind words. You almost made me cry. I will try to do it later.
Let me start by and also to congratulate you for being a fellow honoree this evening. The European Union is really blessed, blessed that the person leading through the pandemic is not only a strong and effective leader but also someone with a deep background in medicine and in public health. This rare combination of skills has made you an invaluable, invaluable partner in ensuring that both Europe and the world [have] the tools they need in the battle against this virus.
Working together often, as you said, communicating very late when your time would allow, or very early in the morning, we found a way to help protect Europeans across the continent, but just as important, to help ensure that vaccines produced in Europe, as you said, are arriving safely and swiftly to the destinations around the world.
I have greatly enjoyed and valued our collaboration. And I’m grateful that I met you in life, Ursula.
Speaking of enjoyable and valuable collaborations, I also want to congratulate my fellow honorees and very, very, very good friends Özlem Türeci and Ugur Sahin.
The first time I spoke with Ugur on the phone, it was clear to me that we share the same values, the same urgency about the virus, and the same unwavering belief in our people and our science. I told my wife the same night, Myriam, it was love at first sight with this guy. And later, when I had the opportunity to meet Özlem, I knew instantly that she shared those things as well. Actually, I realized that the common saying, behind every great man there is a great woman, in their case applies to ahead of every great man is a great woman.
The pandemic has taught us that we can accomplish great things when we are united by a common purpose. The virus knows no geographic borders. It does not discriminate based on race, religion, gender, financial condition, or political affiliation, which is a mistake that we greatly make, particularly in this country.
So to defeat it, we must be united. And I can’t think of a better example of this unity than the strong relationship enjoyed by the leaders, the humans, of the two companies. Think about it. One, a Jew from Greece, immigrated to America; the other, a Muslim from Turkey, immigrated to Germany. Some might consider this an unlikely pairing. I consider it a very good fortune.
Our other fellow honoree, Dua Lipa, who I had the pleasure of meeting her today, and it was my dream—I’m going to call my daughter—also understands the power of collaboration. Her recording of “Cold Heart” with Elton John, which some also might consider an unlikely pairing, like me and Ugur—is proof that artists from different genders and different generations can collaborate to create something special.
But, of course, tonight we are honoring Ms. Lipa not only as a great artist, but also for her efforts as the founder of Sunny Hill Foundation, which works to reduce poverty, injustice, and inequities in Kosovo, a country very close to my country in Greece. And so, I want to thank and congratulate her for using her time, talent, and resources to make the world a better place.
I want to thank the Atlantic Council for this honor, which I proudly accept on behalf of Pfizer’s 80,000 talented and purpose-driven colleagues around the world.
As someone born in Europe and now an American citizen—I used to say I’m Greek by birth, American by choice—I have great respect for the work you do not only to foster the transatlantic cooperation, but also to promote our shared values: global engagement, free and fair trade, intellectual property protection, democracy, equity, and justice, to name just a few.
The response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been a great example of the power of transatlantic cooperation. In addition to US-based Pfizer and German-based BioNTech collaboration to deliver a breakthrough vaccine in record-breaking time, our manufacturing facilities in Belgium and our manufacturing facilities in the United States are poised to produce three billion doses of the vaccine by the end of this year, in a month and a half, and another four billion at least next year, in 2022.
Private-public partnerships also have been critically important. For example, Pfizer is providing one billion doses of our vaccine—or, our BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine—we are providing to the government at the not-for-profit price so they can, in turn, donate these doses to the poorer countries of the world—one billion doses. And we are working with the EU on not only supply agreements, but also the very important education campaigns to help address vaccine hesitancy not only in the EU, but around the world. These are just a few examples of how transatlantic partners are helping lead the battle against this deadly virus.
Let me close by thanking, of course, my fellow Pfizer colleagues for their innovative and tireless efforts over the past twenty months. Recognizing it will take a combination of treatment and protective measures to bring an end to this pandemic, they continue to follow the science. And I’m proud to say that just last week we announced clinical trial results demonstrating that an antiviral candidate—that hopefully will be approved—prevented approximately nine out of ten hospitalizations in high-risk adult patients. Clearly, news that [has] the potential to be a real game-changer, but in all cases should not be news that will feed vaccine hesitancy. Vaccines are very important.
And lastly, of course, I want to thank my family for their love and support, which brightens my every day, particularly during this pandemic. I had to work there in an office torturing people on the other part of the line—why they are not moving fast and listening [to] my wife cooking in the kitchen next door—and having my daughter… and my son… and of course my lovely wife, Myriam, coming and comforting me when I was really pissed or angry—because we were not moving fast.
And to my fellow Pfizer colleagues that are sitting on those tables, thank you. I love you.