THREAT ASSESSMENT

Adversarial Threat Assessment

Sabrina Toubbeh

University of San Diego

CSOL 580: Cyber Intelligence

Professor Biedermann

31 January 2022
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Introduction

Pfizer and its partner, BioNTech (BNTX), is a major player in the pharmaceutical drug

world. As CompanyX's global portfolio includes medicines and vaccines, Pfizer and its partner

are direct competitors to our market share. Since the announcement of the declared COVID-19

pandemic on March 11 2020, CompanyX stock prices have plummeted. As a result, an

adversarial threat assessment has been conducted to discover what is making Pfizer a direct

threat and to course correct CompanyX.

Pfizer Executive Leadership Team

CEO: Albert Bourla has been at Pfizer for more than 25 years and took the reins as Chief

Executive Officer in January 2019 (Executive Leadership, 2022). His net worth is at an estimated

$36.2 million dollars (Wallmine editors, 2022).

CTO: Lidia Fonseca is the Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Pfizer, responsible for

enterprise-wide digital, data and technology strategy and solutions (Executive Leadership, 2022).

CFO: Frank D’Amelio is the Chief Executive Financial Officer who is responsible for corporate

finance functions including audit, treasury, tax, insurance, operations planning and analysis

(OP&A), corporate controllership, business finance and analytics, and for Pfizer’s Global Supply

organization (Executive Leadership, 2022).

Chief Compliance, Quality and Risk Officer: Rady Johnson has overall responsibility for the

company’s global compliance program, Regulatory Quality Assurance organization, and global

security efforts (Executive Leadership, 2022).

Threat Viability

Pfizer-BioNTech is a direct threat to CompanyX because they are considered to be

leading the effort in the development of the COVID-19 vaccine and boosters. They were the first
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to receive full Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for people ages 16 and older in

August 2021 (Katella, 2022). It was also the first COVID-19 vaccine to receive FDA Emergency

Use Authorization (EUA) back in December 2020. Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine is unlike

anything CompanyX has experimented with. Instead of using pieces of a virus, Pfizer employed

mRNA vaccines where the “mRNA teaches cells in the body how to create an immune response

to the virus that causes COVID-19” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2022). This

type of technology is revolutionary and has quickly earned market recognition.

CompanyX is now working on receiving full FDA approval for its antiviral pill for

treatment for COVID-19. As of December 11, 2021, the FDA issued an emergency use

authorization for Pfizer’s Paxlovid (FDA, 2021). If Pfizer brings their antiviral treatment to the

market first, CompanyX stands to lose millions.

Financial Viability

Pfizer has demonstrated that they have a substantial advantage due to their COVID-19

vaccine. Shares of Pfizer hit a record high for the first time in over 20 years as shares of the

COVID-19 vaccine makers have surged (Krauskopf & Carew, 2021). As co-developer and owner

of the COVID-19 market’s “it” vaccine, Pfizer is sitting atop of the world in the books of top

biopharma companies. As of December 4, 2021, their market cap was $304.6 billion (Johnston,

2021). Analysts estimate that Pfizer’s revenue could reach $101.3 billion in 2022. Of the $101.3

billion, oral COVID drug Paxlovid could contribute $24.2 billion (Liu, 2021). This demonstrates

the financial viability of Pfizer.

Recommendation

At this time, a secret operation is not warranted due to reputational damage and how it

may affect future funding from the government, but some steps may be taken to control this
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threat. Pfizer has sold millions of vaccines to the U.S government along with many other

countries boosting their revenue and market capitalization. One way CompanyX can compete

when the antiviral pill for COVID-19 hits the market is to lower the cost per course of treatment.

While this may affect our revenue in 2022, it will give CompanyX a competitive advantage to

sell to multiple governments across the globe; This can increase CompanyX stock prices since

the COVID-19 pill is considered to have potential by the market. In fact, Pfizer sold its vaccine

to European countries for €15.50 and Moderna’s vaccine was about €19, yet Pfizer made more in

revenue and saw a bigger increase in their stock prices (Kansteiner, 2021). Pfizer pulled in more

revenue because they sold 1.8 billion doses compared to Moderna which sold 460 million doses.

It also gives CompanyX the opportunity to get more funding for future experiments if the

COVID-19 pill is successful. Being able to sell to multiple countries and success on future

medical experiments/trials would offset decreased revenue if it were to occur.

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References:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, January 6). Pfizer-BioNTech. Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/Pfizer-BioNTech.ht

ml#:%7E:text=The%20Pfizer%2DBioNTech%20COVID,19%20in%20the%20future

Executive Leadership. (2022). Pfizer. https://www.pfizer.com/about/people/executives

FDA. (2021, December 22). Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: FDA Authorizes First Oral

Antiviral for Treatment of COVID-19. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-aut

horizes-first-oral-antiviral-treatment-covid-19

Johnston, M. (2021, December 13). 7 Companies Owned by Pfizer. Investopedia.

https://www.investopedia.com/companies-owned-by-pfizer-5211303

Katella, K. (2022, January 10). Comparing the COVID-19 Vaccines: How Are They Different?

Yale Medicine. https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/covid-19-vaccine-comparison

Krauskopf, L., & Carew, S. (2021, August 10). Pfizer shares hit record high with COVID-19

vaccine stocks on a tear. Reuters.

https://www.reuters.com/business/pfizer-shares-hit-record-high-with-covid-19-vaccine-stock

s-tear-2021-08-10/

Kansteiner, F. (2021, August 2021). Pfizer, Moderna hike COVID-19 vaccine prices in new

European supply deals: report.

https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/pfizer-moderna-turn-up-covid-19-vaccine-prices-euro

pe-as-companies-plot-deliveries-into-2022\
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Liu, A. (2021, November 23). Pfizer to become $100B behemoth next year thanks to COVID-19

drug and vaccine: analyst. FiercePharma.

https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/pfizer-to-exceed-100b-revenue-2022-thanks-to-covid

-19-drug-and-vaccine-analyst

Wallmine editors. (2022, January 14). Albert Bourla Net Worth. Wallmine.

https://wallmine.com/people/40271/albert-bourla