Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has claimed that former President Donald Trump’s son in law and adviser Jared Kushner wanted to reroute vaccines from Canada, Japan, and Latin America to the US.
In an op-ed in Forbes, Dr Bourla wrote that he had a “heated” debate with Mr Kushner concerning whether the US would receive the company’s vaccines first. The op-ed was adapted from Dr Bourla’s book, Moonshot: Inside Pfizer’s Nine-Month Race to Make the Impossible Possible.
The CEO claimed that he and Mr Kushner found themselves disagreeing on when an additional 100 million doses ordered by the Trump administration would be delivered.
Dr Bourla noted that the Trump administration was ordering another 100 million on top of an initial order of the same size, while other countries were waiting for shipments agreed on earlier.
“Jared was asking for a very aggressive delivery plan to the US for the additional 100 million doses. He wanted it all in the second quarter of 2021,” Dr Bourla writes. “To do that, we would have had to take supplies from Canada, Japan, and Latin American countries, all of which had placed their orders earlier than the US and were expecting the vaccine in the second quarter.”
“I refused to do that, and the debate between the two of us became heated,” he added.
“I reminded Jared that I had made very clear to [Operation Warp Speed leader] Moncef Slaoui that we would not take doses from other countries to give to the US,” Dr Bourla states, adding that he had “almost begged” the vaccine leaders in the administration to increase their initial order, but that they had “repeatedly refused to do so”.
“But Jared didn’t budge. In his mind, America was coming first no matter what. In my mind, fairness had to come first,” Dr Bourla writes in the op-ed. “He insisted that the US should take its additional 100 doses before we sent doses to anyone else from our Kalamazoo plant. He reminded me that he represented the government, and they could ‘take measures’ to enforce their will.”
“Be my guest, Jared,” Dr Bourla quotes himself as telling Mr Kushner. “I prefer to have Japan’s prime minister complaining to you about the cancellation of the Olympics rather than to me.”
The CEO states that the conflict was resolved as the company’s “manufacturing team continued to work miracles, and I received an improved manufacturing schedule that would allow us to provide the additional doses to the US from April to July without cutting the supply to the other countries”.
“It was a good compromise, and eventually the contract was signed. Jared called me two days later from Mar-a-Lago to thank me for the collaboration, and we closed the loop on a happy note,” Dr Bourla concludes.
The deal for 100 million doses to vaccinate 50 million Americans was reached for $1.95bn in December 2020.
