--- title: Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Making Medicine in the U.S., Vaccines After COVID, and More description: The pharmaceutical giant reached new heights during the pandemic while becoming a prominent voice for the scientific community; now the company has sought out new avenues of success. canonical: https://time.com/collection/the-ceo-moment/2026/pfizer-albert-bourla/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-08-18T16:51:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-18T17:02:10.155Z article:section: Business og:title: Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Making Medicine in the U.S., Vaccines After COVID, and How He Gets Along With RFK Jr. og:description: The pharmaceutical giant reached new heights during the pandemic while becoming a prominent voice for the scientific community; now the company has sought out new avenues of success. og:url: https://time.com/collection/the-ceo-moment/2026/pfizer-albert-bourla/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta5554b32986cc19e/6a7eee40453dbaf902afe923/260907VCEOMOMENT_001new.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Making Medicine in the U.S., Vaccines After COVID, and How He Gets Along With RFK Jr. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Making Medicine in the U.S., Vaccines After COVID, and How He Gets Along With RFK Jr. twitter:description: The pharmaceutical giant reached new heights during the pandemic while becoming a prominent voice for the scientific community; now the company has sought out new avenues of success. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta5554b32986cc19e/6a7eee40453dbaf902afe923/260907VCEOMOMENT_001new.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 18, 2026 # Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Making Medicine in the U.S., Vaccines After COVID, and How He Gets Along With RFK Jr. > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Sam Jacobs](https://time.com/author/samuel-p-jacobs/) ## Sam Jacobs Editor in Chief of TIME ## Video: Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on the Future of Pharma [Watch (HLS stream): Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on the Future of Pharma](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ztSG9oTY.m3u8) (36:53)  _Published 2026-08-18. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on his career and the company's push to develop cancer treatments._ As CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla emerged on the global stage during the COVID pandemic, leading the vaccine-maker to new heights while becoming a prominent voice for the scientific community. The years that followed have been more challenging. The pharmaceutical giant has sought out new avenues of success with cancer-treatment drugs and to catch up with its competitors, which have dominated the market for weight-loss medications. Bourla spoke with TIME recently at his New York City HQ. **You're turning 65 this year. How many more years do you think you'll be leading Pfizer?** Every December I take a glass of wine and then I reflect on how I was when I started the year, how I am as a personality, what have I learned, what have I changed in my life. I think that this? December I realize that I'm the same as January will be the December I make the decision to go. **Coming out of COVID was a big comedown for Pfizer’s business. You’ve said that impacted you psychologically. What did you mean?** I’m a very, very high achiever. To go from the top performer to the bottom performer—although not in everything, but in stock price, for example—was something that I didn’t take lightly. And I know that my whole organization didn’t take it lightly. I needed to find the path and rally an organization behind it. I tried to explain to people, “You were the guys that saved the world when nobody thought that it could be saved. And you did it in ways that nobody thought it was possible. Guess what? We are going to do it again, with cancer this time.” **You seem to be behind some of your competitors when it comes to obesity. How do you think you’re going to catch up?** We aspire to bring into the market an obesity treatment that instead of weekly injections requires monthly injections. That’s a very big differentiation. **What’s your relationship like with Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr.?** I told him that there are things that we have very different views \[on\]—vaccines, for example. If we select the areas that don’t have that big of a difference and try to work together to produce something good ... that will create a bonding and will take away the trust issues, and then we can tackle the vaccines. **The Health Secretary has attacked a revolving door between Washington and the industry. You recently hired a top FDA official to be your chief medical officer. What went into that decision?** The FDA official used to be a Pfizer employee before going to the FDA. **Is it possible for the U.S. to build a medical supply chain without China?** I don’t think it’s a good thing to have a reliance on the supply chain of China when it comes to medicines. **But can we build it here?** I think we can, but we need to provide market incentives. There was a reason why medicines that used to be manufactured in the U.S. moved out. **You’ve prioritized speed here at Pfizer. Are there any risks for a pharmaceutical company to be so focused on speed?** I think it is extremely important that we do things faster without cutting any -corners ... We have a saying in Pfizer: “Time is life.” Bringing medicine for a cancer patient earlier makes all the difference in the world. If that medicine will allow someone to see the wedding of the son or the graduation of the daughter, there is nothing more important in their life, and speed is what will allow them to do it. ## Transcript All right. Should be fun if it's not. If it is not. Then walk out at any moment. It's your building. Albert Bourla. Welcome to the CEO moment. As the leader of Pfizer, you have been witness and actor to some of the most interesting chapters for health, leadership and innovation during the last decade. Thank you for having us here at Pfizer's new headquarters in New York City. Thank you. First of all, it's a great honor to be part of of this series. And thank you for coming here. Before we get into today's news, I'd like to start with where you started. Your family survived the near-total destruction of one of the oldest Sephardic communities in the world, wiped out in the Holocaust. What's the story your parents told you about how they survived, and how old were you when you first heard it? I grew up, as you said, in a family that were Holocaust survivors. We lost most of the members of the family as the entire community. But there were a few relatives that survived. Together with my mom and dad, and they were all coming together every Sunday in. In Greece. And all the cousins will be sitting around and they would speak about, uh. What happened to them during the Holocaust. It's very unusual. Usually Holocaust survivors never spoke about the pain. Why do you think they did? It's the personalities, I think, of the individuals that made them. And to be frank. My father, he would serve very few details. But my mom and her brother that came back from Auschwitz, they would share a lot of details about what happened. So we knew everything. The interesting thing in in my case, it is that my parents never spoke to me about the horror that they lived trying to instill on me hate or a sense of revenge, or even a sense of fear. Be careful. It was always a celebration of life. Does that surprise you now? I think saved my personality. The fact that through this terrible experience, my mom could see that the line was life is miraculous and saved my entire personality. And I grew up learning to find opportunities and good in even the most challenging situations. Speaking of your personality, I'm curious to hear you speak a little bit more about how that history shaped how you make decisions today at Pfizer. I don't know if it is only that it is a series of things that is is making you who you are and who you are is making you make the decisions that you make. But clearly, I would say a level of optimism that my mom instilled on me is very obvious in my leadership style. I always see the glass half full when we have a challenge. Many colleagues of mine will see what can go wrong, and then maybe what opportunity we can open. I always start with, wow, that's an opportunity that is opening. And then I try to find out also what can go wrong. So coming out of that experience, that horrible experience you take with you optimism. Yes. Another piece of your life story is you trained as a veterinarian. I'm curious. That's not a usual background for a pharma executive, I don't think. I'm curious how that shapes your thinking here today. You're right. I It became a veterinarian, and I joined Pfizer because I was a veterinarian. Pfizer had an animal health group at that time. So I joined Pfizer in my country, Greece, and as a vet operations director. The pivot was when, after 15 years with the animal health, I moved into the pharma division. And that, of course, was one of the most important moments in my life. The years in animal health were extremely successful for me and taught me things that other colleagues in pharma didn't know. Like what? We were a very small division. We were 5% of Pfizer, and we had to fight for every single resource we could get. We had to be s****py. We had to be very customer focused rather than product focused. What I discovered was the main culture in pharma. When I joined, I was surprised how many resources we were having when we were dealing with the project in pharma, and I was surprised how long it takes because when you have a lot of resources, you have many cooks in the kitchen. More resources means it takes more time. More resources, more time. It's it's a myth that more resources brings the timelines to shorter. A lot has happened here at Pfizer since Covid, but I'm curious what you learned about what it took to be a CEO during that period. I think perhaps diplomat was added to the title of CEO, given the responsibilities that businesses took on at that moment. So do you feel like the job requirements changed in that period? I do think so, yes. Health because of Covid became extremely politicized. It was presented in multiple different shapes and forms that required from the CEOs of the health companies to be able to navigate the very dangerous minefield, almost, which was driven not by science, not by patient needs, not by health needs, but by politics. But did the expectations for you as a leader change? As I said before, the leadership needs to be anchored in values and in strong beliefs that reflect you. The number one thing that people are looking for is authenticity. If you try to pretend and speak about something that people can see that is not you, they will see it immediately. So and nobody likes that. Well, speaking of authenticity. Be authentic with me now. You're turning 65 this year. How many more years do you think you'll be leading Pfizer? I think I grow every year in my role. I always it's a habit. Every December I take a glass of wine. And what wine is that? Usually Chardonnay. Okay. And then I reflect how I was when I started the year and how am I am as a personality. What have I learned? What have I changed in my life? And I think that the December that I will realize that I'm the same, like January will be the December I will take the decision to go. And so how did that moment of reflection go? Last year? I learned a lot. Okay. You've made a significant bet on cancer treatment as a core of Pfizer's future. Why is that? I think for two reasons. The first and foremost is that the medical need is there. Cancer is the number one killer of diseases cancer. It is one of the most feared diseases in the world and everyone is affected by it. Not necessarily as a patient. Thank God, but as a friend, as a son, as a husband so affects all of us. All of our lives are touched by cancer. All. And Pfizer and science was ready for us. Pfizer. We had the capabilities to be able to make a difference in that field. And the science really was breaking the moment that we decided to do all these investments in areas that were very new and highly promising, like the technology of a disease, which is where we invested the most. So. The demand was there and our ability to make a difference was there. So it was a noble cause for us. Cancer is not the only bet that Pfizer is making today. You recently acquired Mazzara to expand obesity treatments. You spent close to $10 billion to win that company away from Novo Nordisk in a bidding war that became a little bit ugly. What were the stakes of that deal for Pfizer? The obesity is an area that it is growing very fast. So the patients, the needs of humanity to address it is very, very high. And with the GLP one, it was the first time that we had a medical class, a medicine class that could bring serious results. When we decided to go there, we looked at the need as we did with oncology. We need also the science and we need in our capabilities. And our capabilities were ideal to win in that area. Obesity is the primary care. It is a disease of the masses and Pfizer. It is a powerhouse in primary care, commercially manufacturing wise and research wise. It is for us the ability to be able to bring something differentiated in the marketplace so that we can win. And that was the opportunity that Mezzetta gave us. You've talked about the importance of your values as a leader. Were there particular values that you brought to that acquisition? In all acquisitions, I brought the value of courage. When you buy something at $10 billion, you need to have the stomach to to do it, you need to have the ability to understand the risks. You need to convince people and you need to execute. You seem to be behind some of your competitors when it comes to obesity. Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, other leaders. Pfizer is not the leader at the moment. How do you think you're going to catch up and potentially pass them? We aren't a leader because we don't have a product in the market yet. And they do. I think probably will be the third ones to come with the introduction of a of a product in that marketplace. And that should happen in two years. That would be by 2028. That would be by year 2028. So for us, two things will make the difference. One, it is the product we aspire to bring into the market. An obesity treatment that, instead of weekly injections, requires monthly injections. That's a very big differentiation. That's a very big benefit for those that they value it. And that's a serious reason to switch to you. So ideally the same impact. But I'm doing 12 shots a year not 52. Very well said. And it is very, very important to be able to understand that that puts very different perspectives in the Um, in the way that the convenience that the people are experiencing and still you will get the same weight loss and the same safety tolerability profile. You mentioned your stomach or the company's stomach earlier. You're on a bit of an acquisition streak. Do you have a stomach for for further deals? I do, and we do. Um, the big difference between us and others is that we place our bets. What does that mean? Um, if you see how much companies have invested in acquisitions, we stand out. There is no one that since 22 has invested, uh, not even close. Not even half of what we have invested. We invested almost $70 billion since 2022, 80. If you start a little bit earlier in significant areas in obesity, inflammation, in migraine and in cancer, um, so for us, it is pretty much make sure that we execute well on these acquisitions and we deliver the results rather than build a bit more. What does AI mean for Pfizer? AI is transformative, and AI will change the way that we discover and develop medicines, the way we manufacture medicines, the way that we market medicines, and the changes will be so deep and disruptive that I believe will generate new winners and losers. There will be companies that will find themselves at the top of the list because they got it right. And there are companies that will find themselves at the bottom because they were complacent or they got it wrong. They tried, but not the right recipe. And that's the big risk because I don't think anyone knows yet. What's the best way to transform yourself through AI? Has AI replaced anything in your research and development pipeline so far? If you are asking if we have progress, I mean like if we have designed a molecule through AI. Yes we have. It's not a medicine yet because that takes multiple years. The one closest example to something like that you are asking it is our pill for Covid. Paxlovid. Paxlovid, usually the preclinical phase of a medicine. It is five years. In Paxlovid, we did it in six months. Preclinical means before you test it in humans. That was because of AI. And that was because of machine learning at the time, which was basically the preliminary form of AI. Are there measurable ways you can show that AI is increasing productivity inside of Pfizer? You just gave an example of a shortened timeline. Are there other things that you're looking for and watching? Well, yes there are. And if you've seen Pfizer in the last three years had a very impressive record of reducing our cost base. That was necessary because Covid created a huge opportunity for Pfizer, because we were able to save the world, basically. But then Covid became less of an issue, and our revenues were cut almost in half. And the costs associated with that. And the cost associated with all of that needed to go out. So we were very successful in taking out billions of cost out without affecting the top line by three things. Focusing, simplifying things and technology. Which AI is the biggest part of that simplification also? Let's not underestimate the impact that can have in your cost base. We have a very complicated structure, a very complicated life. And as I we discussed earlier, having less resources probably speed up things because people can be very decisive and make decisions, rather than when you have a room of 20 people that need to decide, something takes them forever. You've said that AI will separate winners and losers when those who embrace it and those who don't. Among the different companies. Are there qualities in your mind of those companies who will emerge as winners? I would say what I think will be the most important. The number one, it is culture and people, and I think that's the most important. It is organization inertia. It is the ability of an organization to transform itself into an AI native operation. Now that the tools are available, that's the very difficult part. And that depends on leadership, people, culture. Albert, you speak a lot about speed. This is something you wrote about in your annual report last year, the importance of increasing speed at Pfizer. I have to ask at a pharmaceutical company, what's lost with that emphasis on speed? What are the risks if you're focused on going faster and faster? I think it is extremely important that we do things faster without cutting any corners. And because we are highly regulated industry, I don't think it is allowed of us to move faster by not documenting robustly the efficacy or not documenting robustly the safety. But to move fast, there are a lot of opportunities. We have a saying in Pfizer, time is life. Paraphrasing the time is money, because bringing a medicine for a cancer patient earlier makes all the difference in the world. If that medicine will allow someone to see the wedding of the son or the graduation of the daughter, there is nothing more important in their life. And speed is what will allow them to do it. And how many of us have lost a loved one only to find out 2 or 3 years later that an innovation makes it possible for them to have lived longer. Unfortunately, many. And that's why it is important to understand time is life. Coming out of Covid was a big comedown for Pfizer. You said at one point we saved the planet and then you come out of this period, your revenue goes down, your stock price goes down. You've said that that impacted you psychologically. What did you mean by that? Oh, I took it very bad. I, I was, uh. I'm a very high achiever. I success and been able to achieve things drives me and, uh, to go from the top performer to the bottom performer, although not in everything, but in stock price, for example, that was something that I didn't take lightly. And I know that my whole organization didn't take it lightly. For many of them, that was a lack of external validation of our value. I knew, though, that I am the leader, so everybody is watching me. So I knew that first of all, I should overcome my psychological. And you have. And I have. Yeah. And the most important, I knew that I need to find the path, the new path and rally an organization behind it and inspire people. But we have a solution. This is where we go. That's the most important thing that a leader can do. 2023 was the year that we experienced all these very big problems, and it was a challenging year for me. But I always say that what differentiates winners from losers is not that winners never fall. You were saying earlier 95% of what Pfizer tries. Thank you. Doesn't work. What differentiates winners from losers? It is that the winners always stand up. How would you counsel someone who's going through that experience themselves? You know, I'm not I'm not counselling them. I know what I was saying to to my people. First of all, I was not hiding that I am also affected. But I was bringing the optimism that we discussed earlier. I was bringing that there is a way and the way it is one, two, three. And I tried to explain to people that you were the admiration of the whole world. You were the guys that saved the world when nobody thought that can be saved. And you did it in ways that nobody thought it is possible. How you discover it, how you manufactured it, how you developed it, all of that. You are the same people now because the sales went to half, because Covid is not in demand anymore. Covid products doesn't mean that you are someone different. You are the guy that you did that. Guess what? We are going to do it again with cancer this time. Well, speaking of that external validation, the stock price today is about where it was in 2020 after billions of dollars of acquisitions. Is Wall Street getting something wrong about Pfizer? The Wall Street takes time to adjust their projections. We made very clear that we have strong conviction of high single digit growth, and the street is not there. It is our duty to solve them. The street is in a Somi mode, Somi mode. In our case it is execution. So every quarter if you deliver. That's a very strong point, but more importantly, pipeline. So the readouts of our pipeline are, I think, the things that will convince or not the street to adjust their projections if street projection where where our projections are, the stock could easily be doubled based on multiples and EPS projections. So I am hopeful that those things will be clear in the next couple of years. It's time to show the street what you what you're doing. We already saw the street. Our ability to deliver top line since 23 that we had this Covid. It is four times for earnings in 24 for earnings in 25 and 1 in 26. This is nine earnings all nine times. We beat expectations that the street now really pays attention to that. Earlier this year, President Trump traveled to China with a plane full of CEOs. I believe not one of them was from your industry. Did that surprise you? Um, no, because right now, the big hot items that are discussed between China and the US is tech AI tips. And this is, I think, why the delegation short sighted. Go back a few years. We had a very different conversation going. And it's not short sighted, but it is where the heat of the discussion is in biotech right now. There is a revolution in China. China is having a giant leap in terms of their ability to produce medical scientific innovation. And in our world, I think only good things can happen if we try to collaborate with them, rather than just to antagonize them. Is it possible for the United States to build a medical supply chain without China? I don't think that it's a good thing to have a reliance on the supply chain of China when it comes to medicines. But that wasn't my question. Is it not? Is it good or is it bad? Could we build it here? I think we can, but we need to provide market incentives to be able to do. There was a reason why medicines that used to be manufactured in the US moved out not only because of high cost, but also with high tax. And they were much more efficient if they were manufacturing them outside the US. Right now, for essential medicines that you need to operate your hospital system, for example, it is an imperative to bring back the supply chain. You can't say that if something goes wrong in our relations with China, they may close the supply and then we don't have medicines to operate our hospitals. We should change that. There is a very easy way to change it, create the incentives and the markets immediately will respond and build the capacity here. One of the things that I hear you pointing at is not just the when it comes to competition, not just the manufacturing strength, but a scientific one. Is China pulling ahead on the scientific front. China is pulling way more on the scientific front than in the supply front when it comes to manufacturing of pharmaceuticals. I don't think China, they don't manufacture any of our medicines that we are using in the US, for example, for Pfizer, right? But they have early stage products that we license because we try to collaborate. It is important to make this distinction, but it's a different thing if you want to limit collaboration with any country when it comes to military supplies or defense industry, when it comes to nuclear power, when it comes to cancer medicines. I don't think anyone cares if the medicines that we save his children life was invented in China or in the US. What they want is to be safe, efficacious and have it now before it's too late for their own kid. And that's why I think it is important to collaborate. Over your shoulder is a cash register from the early days of Pfizer. This is a company that was founded in Brooklyn, 170, almost 180 years ago, almost 180. You've called Pfizer a, a a true American company. Is that an asset in today's world? I think it's a great asset. American entrepreneurship, American leadership in science. Uh, for a company like us, it is extremely important. If you are saying the politics are at a difficult point of history, yes, there are right now and it is difficult to be Chinese if you are in the in the US as it is to be American if you are in Europe. But I think that will go away. We are living in a transitional period, the post globalization period and the post super new technologies period that eventually will find their ways and they will live again. A period that will be normalized and then being an American will sign again, as it has for the last decades. You run a company whose core products depend upon trust in expertise. At a moment in time when the trust and expertise is decreasing, perhaps by the year. How does Pfizer go about engaging in that fight to shore up the trust and expertise? Actually, I have to to to say that Covid was a very big boost of trust for us. Yes, it's true that there is a minority, that it is a very vocal against Pfizer because of the Covid vaccine, but there is a vast majority that improved dramatically their perception about our science, their perception about how much they can trust us because of what we did. You think that trust is actually increasing in expertise. When it comes to Pfizer? Yes. And you're not worried about the the maybe the loud voices of the minority, not necessarily attacking Pfizer, but attacking experts and science all over the place. I do worry. And also I am upset when I see that, but also I'm happy to see that the strong voices are voices that are circulating among a small part of the population. One of those voices now runs science and health for the federal government. Yes. That's true. I'm curious, what's your relationship like with RFK Jr? I try to make it very productive and I think he tries the same. I met with him actually, the president introduced us. I told him that there are things that we have very different views. And I told him that I'm not optimistic that we can close the gap in those things. Vaccines, for example. Our views are fundamentally different. But vaccines is not the only thing that we do and is not the only thing that you do. And if we select the areas that we don't have that big difference and try to work together to produce something good, not only that will be good for the American people, but also would be good for our relationship because that will create a bonding and it will take away the trust issues and then we can tackle the vaccines. What would you say to a to a parent who says, based upon what I'm hearing from officials in the federal government, I don't trust these vaccines anymore. I would say that ask your doctor, it's not the government and it's not Pfizer that will convince you. Talk to your doctor. During Operation Warp Speed, you were said to be on the phone every week with President Trump. Yes. What do you talk about now? Is it is it high prices? Is it what is the subject that's front of mind for him when it comes to to your industry. The entire 2025, where it was very intensive year of discussions and and negotiations with the government was about prices. He the president was obsessed. He wanted to reduce the prices here, particularly for the most vulnerable Medicaid. And he wanted also to move manufacturing here. And he was threatening tariffs. Uh, so most of the discussions in year 25 was about those two topics. And, uh, eventually we came to very good resolutions. You as a company were the first pharmaceutical company to sign the so-called most favored nation agreements with the Trump administration. Were there people inside of Pfizer who said, don't do that? We had a significant debate with within the company. We were not obliged to. Um, but we felt that, uh, it is the right thing to do, and we need to be the leaders. And I knew that if we do it, the whole industry will follow. And we did it. You've said that more U.S. manufacturing is going to come back because of these agreements. Can we get into specifics? Oh, yes. I mean, the announcements that the pharmaceutical companies have made in terms of, uh, building and investing right now, manufacturing in the US are multi, multi billion dollars. And what impact will these agreements have on Pfizer specifically? We have commitments to repatriate manufacturing of several of our products. We have commitments to invest significant amounts in assets research and manufacturing centers here in the US. And we have commitments that we will price the new products that are coming in in a way that it is balanced between rich countries and the US. You've advocated for expanding access to medicine, working with Gavi and others to do that. Do you think that access to medicine is greater today than it was, say, five years ago? Yes it is. And I'll give you an example. Pfizer. During the peak of our Covid, we made a commitment to provide all our medicines to the 1.2 billion poorer population, 45 countries, approximately, of low income at cost. The cost to manufacture. We saw already, I think, 19 countries in Africa trying to benefit from that. And they are having medicines that they wouldn't even dream of having before, like cancer medicines that are typically very expensive. Now they are for them very, very easy to get them. What are the other key levers here when it comes to increasing access? What are the things that can make the world a more inclusive place when it comes to medicine? Of course, cost is a significant element, but not only. There are regulatory barriers. All these medicines are not registered in in Africa. I think Africa needs to develop an agency that can do Pan-African regulatory approval. Does that seem like it's in the cards? Yes. I spoke many times with them and they have created already. The first agency is not having the authority yet to do it, but is moving towards this direction. I spoke with a lot of African leaders that they promised that they understand the importance of that and give up their power of their country for approval to a Pan African agency. This issue seems personal to you, if I may say that you gave a speech in 2025. You said there's nothing more urgent than the need to create a world that is rich with inclusion. There may be nothing more dangerous than failing. What did you mean by that? Ours is a company. We discover medicines that didn't exist before. We developed medicines that didn't exist before. And they can change the health of the people. And guess what? People think that health is a human right and they are right. So we need to find ways that the medicines that we discover and develop, they found their ways to those that have poor medical conditions in their countries and in countries like ours, those that they don't have good insurance. We need to find ways to bridge that necessity because the failure will have consequences. I want to round our conversation with what we're calling the leadership test. I'm going to ask you a series of questions. Tell me, what is the first thing on your mind so that our viewers can have a better sense of what type of leader you are? What's the best summer job you've ever had? I was a tour leader when I was studying in the vet school, I would take groups of Greek tourists abroad. I will take them to European countries and I. First of all, I made good money for a summer intern. And secondly, I developed my ability to manage people because as you know, people are demonstrating their worst self when they travel and particularly when they travel in groups. What was your favorite place to go? Vienna. Budapest. What's the phrase that you use most often? Assumption is the mother of every major screw up. How many direct reports do you have now? Nine. When do you feel most focused? In the morning. When are you not checking your phone? Never. How many hours of sleep a night do you get? I sleep at night and I sleep at noon. So I try to take siestas, particularly on weekends. You sleep at noon during the workday. And the work day. If I can steal half hour to go to to a room that we have here, but I during the week, can I do. How many minutes is your commute? Takes me an hour and a half during the half traffic hours, but I have a small place also here in New York. So when I'm in New York, I try to stay here. That's 20 minutes away. Have you ever been fired? Not yet. Not yet. What is your coffee order? Uh, black. How many meetings do you have on a normal day? Less and less. What's the right number? It used to be the whole day. It is now five, six and a shorter duration. It used to be one hour plus. Now it needs to be an extremely important thing to be more than 30 minutes. What's one book on leadership you recommend and you can't pick your own? The one that really had an impact on me. It was a book of Marcel Goldsmith. What got you here won't get you there. And the whole premise of the book was that. You people are selecting you because of the things that you have done, but the things that you have done are not what will make you successful in the new position. You need to change how you do things. And I found that very, very insightful. What's one question you always ask in a job interview? I try to understand the personality, the character, the authenticity, and also the questions that I'm asking them is about these things. When was the last time you changed your mind? I guess yesterday. Albert, thank you very much for being here. Thank you very much. That was great. 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