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MARTHA E. POLLACK: Good afternoon. Welcome. It is really my pleasure to welcome you all to the Hatfield address. This is Cornell University's premier event for the exchange of ideas between the academic and the corporate communities. The Hatfield Fund for Economic Education was established in 1980 by the Continental Group Foundation to honor its retiring chair, the late Bob Hatfield, Cornell Class of 1937, who also served as a University trustee.
The fund supports not only the Hatfield address and associated events, but also the enhancement of economics for Cornell undergraduates. And designation as a Hatfield fellow is the highest honor that Cornell bestows on outstanding individuals from the corporate sector.
We're delighted to have with us today Angela Hwang, a member of Pfizer's executive leadership team and group president of the Pfizer Biopharmaceuticals Group, which is the commercial organization of Pfizer. Her organization of 26,000 colleagues across 125 countries is responsible for bringing over 600 innovative medicines and products to patients.
In 2021, more than 1.4 billion patients benefited from biopharma medicines and vaccines to improve their health, and in many cases, to save their lives. And as group president of Pfizer Biopharma, Angela leads seven commercial business units. Together these businesses strive to deliver transformational medicines that address major global health priorities in cancer, rare disease, inflammation and immunology, primary care, infectious disease, and preventive care with vaccines.
Angela has been with Pfizer for over 24 years, working across all geographies and all therapeutic areas. In 2019, she was named Crain's Notable Women in Health Care-- she was put on Crain's Notable Women in Health Care list. And in 2021, she was ranked number 11 in Fortune's Top 50 Most Powerful Women list, and was recognized in Forbes' Inaugural CEO Next list.
She has also been honored as one of modern health care's top 25 women leaders, and as an A100 honoree, which celebrates 100 most impactful AAPI leaders of the past year. She received the President's Award from the National Diversity Council in 2021 for her efforts to champion diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Angela received her Bachelor in Science in Microbiology and Biochemistry from the University of Cape Town, and her MBA from Cornell University, where she remains a member of the Advisory Council of the SC Johnson Graduate School of Business. She's a wife and proud mom to a teenage son and daughter, and she's a strong advocate for women's leadership and sustainable global health equity.
And speaking of her family-- there they are-- I would like to welcome her husband Stan and her daughter Alexa, Cal's class of 2024 for joining us both today. Stand up.
[APPLAUSE]
We are very honored today to welcome the group president of Pfizer Biopharmaceuticals Group, Angela Hwang, MBA '93, as Cornell's 39th Hatfield Fellow in Economics Education. And I'd like to give you a little award, if you'll come to the podium and I can find it. Here it is. Oh.
ANGELA HWANG: Thank you, Martha.
MARTHA E. POLLACK: You're welcome.
[APPLAUSE]
So welcome again. You received your MBA from Johnson in 1994. Can you tell us a little bit about your experience, and how has that helped shape you into the leader you are today?
ANGELA HWANG: Well, thank you, Martha, and hello, everyone. And thank you for giving me your time today, and giving me the opportunity to be with all of you here in the room, as well as online. Before I answer that question, Martha, I just wanted to say how excited I am to be here today.
And quite literally excited, because it took us all day to get here, but we persevered through the snow and the storms. And we found an airport that would actually take us, so we were able to land safely and drive some more. But the good news is I'm really glad to be here.
MARTHA E. POLLACK: Well, we're really glad you're here.
ANGELA HWANG: I'm also really honored to be the 39th Hatfield Fellow. And it is a tremendous honor, because I know that it follows a long line of exceptional global leaders. So it's truly humbling for me to be here. And your recognition means the world to me. So thank you, Martha.
MARTHA E. POLLACK: Thank you. We're so honored to have you here.
ANGELA HWANG: Well, today is a special day. And it's a special day to be in Ithaca. Because typically, when I am here in Ithaca I'm with my daughter Alexa, and we're doing many other activities. But actually today made me stop and think and reflect about the time that I was here and what it has meant to me.
So let's go back to the fall of 1992, which is when I arrived in Ithaca. At that point, I had come from South Africa, which is where I'm from. I had also just left my job as a research microbiologist at the South African Breweries, where my job was to understand the yeast physiology and to optimize fermentation for beer-making.
And so for many of you, you might think that would be a dream job. But actually, it did not quite have that effect on me. As part of my job, I was supposed to taste the beer that my yeast produced twice a day. But actually, I discovered that I did not have the taste buds for it. And I was then dismissed from my tasting duties, which was very embarrassing for me.
But more so, even though I was successful in my research, and I published papers, and I had won research grants, truthfully, I didn't have a passion for it. And that's what led me to Cornell and to my MBA here.
And those are two challenging years here. One was the weather. I had to learn to dress differently. Because where I grew up, we had 365 days of sunshine. So it was quite the opposite of what I was experiencing here.
But actually, the course material I found to be challenging because it just had-- I had no-- I could not relate to it whatsoever compared to my life in science. But in all of that, I found incredible gratification and I learned a lot.
And actually, one of the classes that I ended up taking was industrial policy in 1993 with the late Professor Alan McAdams. And a little did I know that that course would change the way I would think about my career.
So in 1993, Hilary Clinton and her husband Bill Clinton, our then President, embarked on an effort to rehaul health care here in the United States. And I think it was called Hillarycare at the time. And in industrial policy, it just happened that that moment was right for us to have this be the topic of our course of that semester.
And actually, we were asked to read this book, and I have it, so I found it to bring-- The President's Health Security Plan. And the course was about really analyzing the policy proposals that are here, to critique them, and to provide some alternatives. Because actually at that time, if you remember, for those of you remember, it was quite controversial. It was troubled in many ways. And it became a topic that was really great to study.
And it was just really incredible that I had the opportunity to be in this course in this moment in time. Because actually, by the end of the course, I then realized what it was that I wanted to do that brought together my past in science, my future in business, and that was health care. And it helped me to really focus on the job searches, and the recruiting, and the people that I met and the networking. And from there, it just really opened up a whole new world of opportunity for me.
But a few things I learned in the time that I was here-- one, was to be uncomfortable with being uncomfortable, because-- being comfortable with being uncomfortable, because literally, that is how I felt every single day. The second was to actually listen to my curiosities and then to act on them and to take risks where needed. And the third was to be tenacious, and to ride the highs and the lows, and just to not let things bog you down.
And so you fast forward 29 years, and you see a lot of that being reflected in the way that I lead today. I love to be in the middle of problem-solvings and complexity. And what really gives me a lot of satisfaction is when I'm able to work with my teams, and to really help them get comfortable with the unknowns, uncertainties, being able to forge ahead even when there are barriers, always motivating them and encouraging them to find a new way, to find alternate solutions.
Very much that is a reflection of my every single day right now. And so it's incredible to actually have been given the opportunity to stop and reflect on this. Because this is really what has carried through for the last 29 years and has been very formative.
MARTHA E. POLLACK: That's great. Well, what I wanted to ask you was what you think is the most essential thing for MBA programs to give their students as they prepare for their careers in business. Maybe you just answered that.
ANGELA HWANG: Well, business is such a big word. I mean, there's so many industries, so many sectors. And as time is going by, even so many more new capabilities that are being developed. And so the world of business is actually-- is just really expensive. And so when I think about a course in business, what I think is really important is that it provides both breadth, but also the depth.
But flip side, I think about students. And for students, I think it's really important for them to appreciate a diverse education. Because actually, you don't know where the business world's going to go. You don't know what the next breakthrough trend is. And so you really want to be set up to have many quivers in your arrow.
And actually, I think that's one of the reasons why Cornell is so beautifully suited for a business degree, because your philosophy around any student, any study, really fits that perfectly. You are, in fact, encouraged to go and take as many courses as you can, whether that's in the business school or outside the business school. In fact, Mark Nelson reminded me that I had taken a few at the Hotel School. And who knew where my industrial policy class was actually going to lead me?
So I think that following your curiosities, again, and just really having a broad mindset around the things that you want to learn, because it's interesting and that you have a passion for it. Those are the things that will lead you to a place one day.
MARTHA E. POLLACK: That's great. So Angela, you had a very global experience growing up, even before you got to Cornell. How did that shape the ways in which you think about diversity and equity broadly?
ANGELA HWANG: Well, as you know, I did grow up in South Africa. And there were two things about me that were different. One, I was Chinese. Second, because I was Chinese, I was also non-white in the definition of communities in South Africa.
And so basic things that seem very basic and normal to most people were, in fact, not very basic for me. I couldn't go to school in a public school. I couldn't live in certain areas. I couldn't take public transportation. I couldn't, in fact, even go to college without government authorization. And so my entire life was really around finding alternate ways and finding ways around what life was like living in apartheid.
But I had two wonderful parents, and actually they're listening in today-- so hi, mom and dad-- who were filled with hope and optimism. That's how they raised us. And so in a world that, in fact, was filled with limitations, I never felt that not a single day.
I saw opportunities. I was excited about the things I was doing. I was never afraid to pursue things. And that was because they showed me a world that was not limited by what was in front of us.
And so when you think about that, and you think about the massive inequities that I grew up in-- and I did start to notice them. And I realized that things were very unfair. But equally, I saw some people able to rise up above them and others not.
And I think that it was a really important lesson for me in terms of advocacy, equity, being a part of the solution, speaking up and uplifting others. So these are all the things that to me are still really, really important.
So then you translate that to my world today in the role that I have at Pfizer, where I believe that diversity is actually what makes us strong. Because when you can bring together a group of people who think differently, and bring different things to the table, bring different things and ideas to solving problems-- and we all know how complex problem-solving is. There's no individual heroes in solving problems. You need everyone at the table.
But you also need everyone to know how to work together and to agree to disagree. And when you have these incredible explosion of ideas, and you're able to harness these ideas in working effectively and working respectfully with people, that's when the best results come.
But you also have to help your colleagues to thrive. And that's why having an equitable environment is important. Because you have to enable, and you have to empower others. But you're also, in making them feel valued, making them feel just as important as the person sitting next to them. That's when they will want to bring their best selves to work.
And so that's why equity and inclusion is so critical. And actually in all of biopharma, it's an expectation of all the leaders that work in biopharma to have what I call courageous conversations routinely. So I ask all of our leaders to meet with their teams on a routine basis and have conversations about uncomfortable topics like equity, unconscious bias, inclusion.
And it's incredible over the years that we've been doing this how it has created understanding, empathy, and just a much greater acceptance of one another's differences. But also, tolerance and a welcoming of these diverse ideas. And so in many ways, it has really strengthened us.
These uncomfortable truths are things that we have to face. And it's not just in the workplace, actually, it's also at home. And I have an example to share with you.
Last summer we were on vacation, and I was doing my usual driving duties with my children and their friends. And on this particular afternoon we were parked in front of a grocery store in a parking lot. And while I was waiting for my children someone approached me asked me to-- and asked me a question, saying, well, I need a ride to the train station. Do you know how I can get a cab? So obviously, they had mistaken me for a cab driver because I was Asian.
And it was an interesting sort of, I guess, experience in the car in that moment. I listened to her question. I responded politely. But obviously, I knew that she had made a grave mistake and mistook me for someone else. At the same time, my children were in the car, and Alexa here was outraged.
And I took it better than she did because of how I've grown up and the things that I have seen. But I think the important thing here is that uncomfortable truths also have to be talked about at home. And while it was an uncomfortable situation, it gave us and it catalyzed a conversation that I was able to have with my family and to have with my children.
Because change doesn't happen unless everyone is willing to look uncomfortable truths in the eye and are comfortable having a discussion about it. Because that's when you can move forward. That's when you can create understanding, and that's when you can then create better solutions. So I think it's a really important thing that I try to do both at home, as well as at work.
MARTHA E. POLLACK: Don't worry, Alexa. You are not the only Cornell undergraduate who has expressed outrage about something.
[LAUGHTER]
So I want to push you a little bit further on this same topic and go to gender, and also go from your leaders to young women. What do you say to young women in the MBA class, or maybe who are even undergraduates, about how to succeed in business when representation and pay parity and things like that haven't yet been achieved?
ANGELA HWANG: Well, it is a conversation that I have maybe a little too often. Countless, countless female colleagues, advisor, people that I network with, even outside of Pfizer, ask me all the time about their careers, how to advance, how to think about career advancement, or maybe even career changes.
And in all of those conversations, probably the common thread of all of this is that women have this incredible desire to want to do more, and to really have an impact on society. But what holds them back is this little voice that makes them second guess themselves.
And so most of my conversations with my female colleagues and counterparts are really about how to confidently convey and pursue something that they really want; how to not be afraid of wanting something and putting themselves out there if this is something that they're really interested.
And often, we have conversations about, well, what's the worst scenario? What's the worst that can happen? Because if it isn't that bad, then you should definitely go and give that a try and go for it.
And you'll just surprise yourself at how when you put yourself in that moment, or take that next step, you will figure out a way to make it work. It just always happens. But if you have the passion, the curiosity, and this is something that really moves you, then the rest of it will follow if you can manage it.
So I think a lot of the conversations I have with women are really in that regard. And really, I think, surfacing the right to be confident, and the right to want something, and that it's OK to go and get it.
I think in getting it, though, we can also think more broadly about allyship. And I think when we think about allyship, especially in the workplace, of course, having the allyship of men, or maybe senior men who are holding the big jobs in the company.
But I would say also that I allyship with others-- other women, other minorities. Allyship with people that are in your company or outside the company. It doesn't always have to be a top-- an up-down thing. It's very much of a peer thing. It's very much of an expansive sort of networking thing.
I think that the broader perspectives-- as broad a perspective as you can gain-- you start to realize that, by the way, you're not alone. Many other people feel like you. It's OK to feel this way. It's OK to want something. And it's definitely OK to go for it.
MARTHA E. POLLACK: Great. All right. Let's shift gears. We're two years into this pandemic. Rewind back to March 2020. Pfizer reacted really quickly. What in your organization and your culture enabled you to do this?
ANGELA HWANG: Given that a lot of thought over the last couple of years. Because, of course, we're so proud of the fact that we were able to contribute to bringing this breakthrough to the world so quickly. But when you think about it, there were so many companies that tried. And so what was different about what we did?
And I think that there were really two things. One is our culture, Martha. And I think the second was our partnership and our collaboration with a global scientific and innovation community. So let me talk about the first one first, our culture.
Culture has always been a really big part of Pfizer. And I would say particularly for the last 10 to 12 years under the leadership of our previous CEO, Ian Reed, and our current CEO, Albert Bourla, they both believed that culture could set us apart, that in a time where everyone has access to technologies, everyone has access to smart people, so what is it that differentiates you? And culture has always been at the heart of what we believe would make us different.
And through the years we've used many different words to express our culture. But whichever words we used, they were always values-based, always patient-focused, putting them at the center of all that we do, and purpose driven, driven to provide and to deliver breakthroughs that can change patients' lives. I mean, this is what we do and why we come to work every single day.
And when you have such clarity around your culture, and the more than a decade that we have now spent on investing in that culture, nurturing it, keeping in check good behaviors when we see it, but also pointing out bad behaviors when you see it, you realize over time that you've just created an environment where everyone understands what's expected of them. But also everyone believes it naturally because that's why they came to work here, because these are their values. This is what they want to do.
And so you look at this, and as a result, what it has conditioned people to do is to be really rigorous, and to be really goal-oriented. And Pfizer has always been known as a very results-oriented company.
But at the same time, it also made people empathetic. It made them respectful. It taught us how to work with each other, to agree to disagree and agree at the same time, and to be able to work together effectively.
And so you fast forward and you put us into 2020. All of this then came to pass, because most of us had to work from home. And so we weren't even able to see each other. But in amongst all of the things that had to go on, whether you had to come to work, or if you were a scientist, or you were in manufacturing where you had no choice but to come to work, it brought people together because it brought out the best of everyone.
And when you have a culture that is so respectful, people have the heart to want to do the work. So it's not someone telling you that you have to do it, even though we all knew we had this big goal that we had to meet. People rose to the occasion on their own because they wanted to.
And this is the heart that I think of company's culture. When you have the right culture, and you have a culture that's healthy, and a culture that's respectful, and a culture that's inspiring, people create a-- I don't know-- a feeling and a relationship and a belonging with a company that goes beyond the everyday stuff. So that when that moment comes and you have to rise to the occasion, you do. And that is why people went for months without sleeping. Because they knew that one next experiment, or that one whatever that next one thing is, could be the breakthrough, even though we didn't know how many months that would go on for.
It enabled people to leave their families. I mean, many, many people left their families, and they lived in a bubble with their other colleagues for nine whole months so they could pull off their work. And these stories of these heroic things happened every single day so that we could pull off this feat. And so I think that this culture is not to be underestimated at all. In fact, it has been the one big reason that we continue to be successful, and we continue to be so proud.
The second thing that I want to touch on is this global scientific community and the collaboration. So at this moment that we had decided to do the COVID program, we were already in a partnership with BioNTech. However, our partnership was actually about a flu program that we had begun in 2018. But thank goodness we were already in this program and we were already working together. Because in that moment, we were able to pivot to COVID.
But it wasn't just about our work with BioNTech. mRNA technology, even though it was the first time that it was used in the production of a vaccine, mRNA had been studied for a really long time, and primarily and originally in oncology, in cancer. And so there was just so much research that had already been created, whether it was in the private sector or in the public sector or in academia about mRNA.
And so even though we were starting from scratch, we weren't really starting from scratch. And that gave us decades of a headwind-- a tailwind to really help us along. So I think that that was really important.
Just to give you some context around this vaccine, there are 280 components in this vaccine made in 68 different sites around 19 different countries around the world. That is a representation of the global collaboration that needs to happen. Because when you try to solve problems that are so mammoth and that are so global, you really need to rely on a global ecosystem.
And so the important thing is to keep this global ecosystem alive. Pioneering science, investing in great science, investing in great research, investing in the right incentives, so that you can have a vibrant scientific community is just really vital. Because you don't know when that day is that you have to step up to the plate and to create that next breakthrough that is going to be needed for that next disease.
And by the same token, I will say the same to all of the students and the faculty here in STEM. The work that you are doing is so incredibly important, because you just don't know what that research is going to lead you to, and who is going to need that research. And when you collectively bring all of this incredible science and research together that can be used by the world, that's when we can create amazing things.
And so I think a lot of it was us and what we could do because of who we were and the DNA that we had created. But equally, I think the COVID success story is one that belongs to the world. Because it took thousands and millions of people and so many different companies and so much incredible partnership that made everybody successful.
MARTHA E. POLLACK: Incredibly inspiring. Incredibly inspiring. What's changed? Has your leadership style changed? Has operations changed? Has anything changed as a response-- as we've seen this response over the past two years to COVID?
ANGELA HWANG: Well, everything got faster. But yes. No, a lot of things have changed. I think, first and foremost, speaking about our culture and our DNA, the vaccine-- just to give you some context, the vaccine program-- the code name for the vaccine program was called Project Lightspeed at Pfizer.
And today, we refer to lightspeed as our lightspeed behaviors, because we learned so much about what made us successful, and what enabled us to really move fast. And so these lightspeed behaviors are an important part of what we're trying to really bring to the entire organization now.
Because in reality in 2020, who got lightspeeded? It was just the people in the specific team in the vaccine unit-- wasn't even the entire vaccine unit. But there were certain individuals and certain teams in the vaccine unit who got to be on Project Lightspeed. And it was a portion of the company, but it certainly wasn't the entire company.
And so as an executive leadership team, and also together with our CEO, we talk all the time about how now that we are where are, we can't go back to where we were. So how do we harness the power of what it is that we've learned from how we make decisions, how we move things along, how we look for innovation, and how do you then apply it to many of the other diseases that we have? Because certainly, COVID is a disease, but it certainly is not the only disease we're working on.
We have important programs in oncology and inflammation-- I mean, just some of the most fearsome diseases of our time that equally deserve the speed and the urgency. So how do you apply that? So we're really in the middle of this sort of our next cultural transformation to apply a whole new way of thinking, to reimagine how we work, and to really ensure that all of our other programs in therapeutic areas can benefit from that.
And if I could, Martha, I'd love to sort delve a little bit further into what were some of these big decision points that really helped us to pivot into a successful program. Because if you think about it, it was only 248 days from the day that we decided we were going to embark on this program to the day that we submitted our file to the FDA-- 248 days.
And I remember vividly that day in March when our CEO together with us agreed that this was the right thing to do. And for a moment we all just sort of like stopped, and maybe stopped breathing for a second, and just said, well, how exactly is this going to happen? Because we knew that if we were going to create a vaccine that was going to be useful at all, it needed to be by the fall of 2020, which was exactly eight months away.
And we'd never done anything like this. I mean, a typical vaccine program is five to seven years. And then you put on top of that, we've never even made an mRNA vaccine. So just the level of complexity and the level of that stretch goal was sort of getting further and further away.
But in typical Pfizer fashion, we all took a moment to think about it, and then we all got to work. And I would say, of course, there was just an incredible amount of support going on, but they were four big streams of work. The first stream of work was our researchers, whose job it was to design the vaccine.
Then the second big bucket of work were our clinical trial-- was our clinical trial organization, our clinical development team, whose job it would be to take that vaccine, and to put it into trials, and to create the regulatory pathway in order for us to approve it with the regulators around the world.
Then, of course, we have to make the vaccine, but at scale. And just to give you some sense of the scale as well, on a good year-- and we are one of the top vaccine makers in the world. On a good year, we make 200 million doses of a vaccine. In 2021, we made 3 billion doses of vaccine. So the scale-up was just unheard of. So that was another stream of work that had to get going.
And then finally, it was my work stream, the commercial work stream. And our job was to connect with governments around the world and to secure contracts. And these contracts were critical. Because in the contracts is your agreement with the governments as to how many doses that they want, how did they want it dropped off, where did they want it dropped off, and the millions of details that go into securing a distribution.
Because we knew that if we had a vaccine that could be approved and could be made, but they had no way of getting to where it needed to get to, that it would all be for naught. And so the first insight we had, and the first sort of lightspeed behavior, was that we all need to work in parallel. Because we don't have time to work in sequence.
Typically, in a normal process, you would get to one milestone, have a positive or negative outcome, and then you move to the next. But clearly, we didn't have time for that. So we just said, everybody go all at once.
Also, just to give you another interesting anecdote, and I don't know if you know this, but we also didn't have time-- we knew that we wouldn't have time to find the most perfect vaccine in sequence. So we actually had four different vaccine constructs being studied at the same time at different doses. And we all had bets going on. Is it going to be B1, B2, B3, B4? But in the end, B2 won.
But we had to do that also in parallel, because we wouldn't have the time to go and figure out if one failed, then starting the next. So I think that there was-- our first lightspeed behavioral was around sort of working in parallel.
I think the second one was about finding white space. People often-- when we think about how we work, and you're working in a certain sort of like mindset, you're always challenged to think, well, how can you shave off more time? Because this is probably the fastest that we can do. But, again, we didn't have the option of thinking that way.
So we said, OK, well, what is non-negotiable? What is non-negotiable is patient safety-- the highest rigor and integrity around our scientific data, the ability to ensure that we had robust clinical trials that would stand the test of any regulator. So those things were fixed, and then everything else had to be changed and reimagined.
So one of the biggest areas that we reimagined was our clinical trials. Typically, we would-- one of the things that we did in our clinical trials was to use technology. So we had digital patient diaries that each trial participant had, so that we wouldn't have to wait for the end of the week to collect the data, and then sum up all the data.
Like as they were having these symptoms or whatever it was that they needed to track, they would enter it into this digital diary, and immediately we were able to collect the data. So the data were coming in every single day, and we were able to collect it as we were moving.
The second thing that was actually really interesting, and I don't know if you know this, but we had used artificial intelligence and predictive modeling to help us to understand where the infections were going, so that we could place the trial centers in those places. And so that enabled us to recruit 46,000 people in four months across 150 different sites.
The third thing that we also did was to really change the way that we make decisions or the way that we would share information. So in a typical big corporation-- I'm sure you hear a lot of this-- it's very hierarchical. So level one would tell level two, and then so on and so forth until it gets up there. Well, we didn't have time for that.
So all of our meetings were really focused on, what is the problem we're trying to solve? Who knows this? And then whoever knows this, we get in a room and we bring it together. And it doesn't matter where you're from and what your rank and file is. That really is irrelevant to the whole thing. And so we were able to really unshackle also aspects and sort of like conventions in our company around how you share information, and who should be there, and how you make decisions.
And so you know that was-- and then that just really sped things up tremendously. And it was really a function of these different behaviors and working together, and importantly, never moving a deadline. So that was another thing that happened. And we knew that it was eight months away, so you know you have so many days to do this.
And I think typically, too, when you hit a snag what's the first thing you would do? We're like, OK, well, I'll just get it to you next week, or we'll get it to your next month. But we didn't have the option and the luxury of that.
So we never moved a deadline. We problem-solved everything to the day. And if we couldn't-- if that was not the solution, then we came up with a different approach. But we never moved a deadline so that we could get to the end.
And so that is really how day by day, week by week, month by month, patient by patient we were able to pull this entire package together and to deliver this vaccine in short order. But just to-- before I end this portion of the story, I do want to make a mention of the fact that while this was all going on, by the way, we were also developing the antiviral.
And so there was yet another team that was beavering away, trying to understand whether there was a different approach, Because we didn't know the vaccine was going to work. And so we had to at the same time, in parallel, come up with a different solution.
And likewise, there we were able to apply supercomputing and digital technologies to help us literally screen millions of compounds against this target of the COVID protease inhibitor, which was what we were trying to create, and in months rather than years, and virtually, rather than on the bench in the lab. We were able to narrow it down to a few compounds that we knew would hit this target.
And that is how we got to-- I think it was June of 2021 when we found the one. And within a few weeks, got it into clinical trials. And by December of 2021, we had an antiviral. And so another example of how you work in parallel and to really elevate and to really, I guess, drive the scale of everything that we could to solve the pandemic.
MARTHA E. POLLACK: So let me ask you about the antiviral. And you mentioned the sort of global nature of the development of all of this. What are you doing at Pfizer to ensure equitable access to the antivirals around the world?
ANGELA HWANG: Well, for both antiviral, as well as the vaccine, the first thing that we thought of was, in fact, how do you make this equitable, knowing that there was going to be an incredible demand for both the minute that either one was going to be available? And so from the beginning we had established principles of equity. We said everyone deserves to have these therapies-- high-income countries, middle-income countries, low-income countries.
And so what we created were principals around pricing and allocation. And we said that high-income countries have to pay more than middle-income countries. And middle-income countries have to pay more than low-income countries. But low-income countries should be paying a non-for-profit price-- the price of what it costs for us to make it.
And so those became the principles for how we did the contracts around the world. And regardless of where that went, we obviously started it first for the vaccine. But we used the exact same principles for Paxlovid, our antiviral, as well.
And for both of them, and more specifically, for Paxlovid, in addition to what we call bilateral agreements that we would have country by country, we also sought additional funding for both the vaccine and the antiviral. So some of you may have heard about the COVAX facility that was set up for the vaccine, which really was a pooled procurement mechanism that looked for funding, as well as distribution into low-income countries. So that was a big mechanism that was used, in addition to donations around the world.
But for Paxlovid, in addition to work that we are doing, again, country to country, or with UNICEF, or with supranational organizations like that, what we also did was to agree to work with the Medicines Patent Pool and to license the technology of Paxlovid to the Medicines Patent Pool. What they then do is sublicense it to multiple manufacturers and local companies around the world. So that's a different way that low-income countries or other countries can really access medicines.
So we've really activated a number of approaches, some that we're doing ourselves, and some that we're doing through third parties, and others that we're doing through licensing of our technologies so that countries can make their own.
MARTHA E. POLLACK: Great. So everybody today, everywhere you look there's talk of, OK, we're done with the pandemic. We're in an epidemic, or we're moving into endemic state.
Let me ask you the unfair question. What next? What happens now as we move into this endemic, and what's going to help get rid of the risk of going back to a really critical pandemic state?
ANGELA HWANG: Well, I think that we're all desperate for life as we remember it-- the ability to engage with people, the ability to be with people. And then the isolation I think that we've felt has been definitely a downside. But I think the reality is that we believe the virus is here to stay. And why do we know this?
If you look at the history of viruses, there's really only been one virus that has been eradicated from the world and that is smallpox. Everything else is still around. We just manage it. We manage it through vaccinations. We manage it through treatment.
And certainly, it is very early days. I mean, we've seen a lot of this virus, but we're still learning a lot about this virus. It's changed. It keeps changing, comes and goes, waxes and wanes. It re-emerges in the form of different strains. It mutates rapidly. So I think that we should all continue to be vigilant and to really be mindful of the fact that infection will likely continue to exist.
But therein lies, again, the science-- our ability to understand the epidemiology and to track it, the incredible wealth of real-world data now that has been built in every single country. Our own country, the UK, Israel-- I mean, anywhere you go and everywhere you go countries are now sitting on data of patients that we can follow and that we can understand.
And I think that what we're working on is the ability for us to continue to have new solutions and doing it ahead of time, so that when we need it, we have it. So we are working on next-gen vaccines. We are working on next-gen antivirals, on next-gen treatments that we believe will continue to give us the protection and the security that we need to conduct life in the way that we need it.
But it is going to change. It is highly unpredictable. And because it is highly unpredictable, we need to be ready for a number of circumstances. And so we continue to be-- even though it feels like, OK, we have this vaccine out there, and we have this antiviral out there, and we certainly do, I know that our teams, as we speak, are still beavering away on multiple programs, on multiple aspects of following the science so that we can create these continued breakthroughs that we believe we absolutely will need.
MARTHA E. POLLACK: OK. Last question. We wound back to 2020. Now let's jump forward-- it's 2024 or 2025. What's the most important takeaway that you think you'll have from having been sort of on the front lines of fighting COVID-19?
ANGELA HWANG: We have learned so much about how far we've come, what made us successful. But also, I think not to take for granted what's ahead. And, for me, what I think about and my big lesson learned here is just the fact that I saw such incredible acts of courage and heroics. And this was something that sits in our company with all of our colleagues.
And I think about the unknowns of wherever COVID goes, but also the many unknowns that we have of the diseases that we're still trying to tackle, and the many scientific programs and the medicines that we still have to deliver. And it really brings me back to the fact that when we have these giant, audacious goals that are standing in front of us, what really makes me motivated and what inspires me to want to rally again and again and again to want to do this? And it truly is the inspiration of my colleagues.
In March of 2021, when I just gotten my vaccine, the very first trip that I made that I was able to go on safely was to go visit our manufacturing site in Kalamazoo, Michigan, because that is where our vaccine is made. And when I walked into the site and into the building, I saw these huge banners plastered everywhere on every wall with the four words-- making the impossible possible.
And I was so moved. It was such an emotional moment for me, one, because I hadn't seen anyone in so long. But secondly, because it was just the four words that captured everything there was to say about this miracle that just happened. And it wasn't just by chance, it was because of everything that I've just described to you-- the will, the determination, the courage, and people just not willing to give up.
And so I find that inspiring. And I see that this kind of behavior and that thing that we just did, we're going to have to do that again. Because it'll be another disease or something else that is going to require us to step up.
I think about the colleagues that we have and the generosity of spirit, and just sort of the humanness that they bring to their work every day. And think right now of our colleagues in the Ukraine-- the ones that have the courage and have decided to stay in country, what they're going through, and the acts of courage that they're demonstrating; the ones that are trying to leave, and the treacherous journeys that they're taking, the incredible courage that they are demonstrating.
But also, all of our colleagues in the neighboring countries who have stepped up in overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly generous ways, literally waiting at the border to welcome that next colleague that they've never met into their homes. And I think about that kindness, and I think about that sort of humanity as another aspect that inspires and drives me. Because that's the thing that we have to believe in again if we're going to have to pull these breakthroughs off.
And so I think that these moments of inspiration is what I try to draw from. Because these are the things that we have to constantly remember and constantly use as fuel and energy to tackle that next problem, to tackle that next disease, to tackle that next event whenever it comes.
Because I don't think any of us know exactly what 2025 is going to look like. But whatever it looks like, I think that we have learned a lot about how to deal with it, how to rise to the occasion, and how to bring people together so that we can solve the toughest problems in the world.
MARTHA E. POLLACK: Well, I know I speak for everyone both here and watching virtually when I say that has just been an incredibly insightful and inspirational session. Please join me all in congratulating Angela Hwang on being the Hatfield lecturer.
[APPLAUSE]
Cornell University President Martha E. Pollack and Pfizer Group President Angela Hwang MBA '94 converse about Hwang's leadership and Pfizer’s journey to help combat COVID-19.
