Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s Dean of Vaccines

Although hundreds of vaccine makers tried to develop a shot to combat Covid, only a handful succeeded. Pfizer and BioNTech brought the first safe and effective inoculation across the finish line in the U.S., Europe, and other places where they secured emergency use status. In August the two-dose regimen, known commercially as Comirnaty, became the first Covid vaccine to get full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The partners have also been the first to extend protection to children.

Bourla, an almost three-decade veteran of the company, took charge in 2019 and began laying the groundwork for Pfizer’s recent success, helping spin off its consumer and off-patent drug units to focus on potential blockbusters. During the pandemic he created the new vaccine franchise by coupling BioNTech’s messenger RNA technology with Pfizer’s manufacturing expertise and commercial firepower. The shot and its next-generation offshoots appear to have a sustainable and lucrative future: To meet demand the partners are poised to make as many as 7 billion shots this year and next, 2 billion of which will go to low- and middle-income countries. Pfizer is also aiming to bring an oral treatment to market by Jan. 1.