Pfizer Case

Group 3
How did Pfizer get a head start in COVID-19 19 vaccine race, what evidence is
there that Pfizer has made a big breakthrough?

• When the world was facing the pandemic, the pharma companies were not an exemption to it, BioNTech was also
scrambling, where they needed a well-known company to be their front runner to lead them in the global race of
covid-19 vaccine.
• They wanted to partner up with a giant, and nine months later they did it with Pfizer.
• There was interaction between the companies in terms of exchange of information, Exchange of resources,
Exchange of power and influence.
• Where china was losing its appeal as a potential testing ground, there was much more scope for Pfizer and
BioNTech,
• BioNTech had identified 20 vaccine candidates, of which four were selected for a German trial, all this was possible
because of their research in the cancer treatments and the influenza that they were working on.
• The techniques that were used in developing the cancer treatments had enabled BioNTech to compress the process
of identifying vaccine candidates into months and with the technology that they were using it was much simpler.
• Pfizer said that intellectual property “predominantly directed” toward the vaccine would be owned by BioNTech,
but new discoveries after the Covid-19 partnership began might ultimately be owned by either BioNTech or Pfizer,
“depending on the nature” of the discovery.
Who was Pfizer‘s partner? From this article and other sources, what do you know
about BioNTech? Where is the firm located and who are the firm's founders?

• In August 2018 BioNtech and pfizer came to partnership in developing

vaccine to Influenza. And later with the out break of corona virus both the
companies came to a deal for developing vaccine to COVID-19 by using
mRNA technology.
• BioNtech was founded by Ugur sahin and ozlem, they both are the
Turkish descents and the firm is located in Rhineland region, Germany.
• Biopharmaceutical New technologies as name says the firm uses the new
technologies to treat the disease like mRNA . Usually it develops the
vaccine to cancers, by playing a important role in developing the
BNT162b2 vaccine aganist the SARS-cov2 company became a big Pharma
company.
What specific technology is this new vaccine based upon? Why did Pfizer rely upon a partner to employ this technology
rather than employ this technology on its own to develop a vaccine?

• The specific technology BioNTECH used for making the vaccine is the
mRNA technology which they had been using for developing other
vaccines previously.
• They were not much of pioneer in this field, so when partnered, they
could leverage the resources, where in this case BioNTECH had
developed promising technology in activating the protein required to
develop an immune reaction.
Broadly speaking, what does the story show about the importance of international strategic alliances?
How did the firm's web of strategic partnerships worldwide result in a competitive advantage for Pfizer?

Importance of International Strategic alliances:

• This Strategic alliance between Pfizer and BioNtech can be viewed as one driving a Radical
Innovation, these Innovations are the ones that change the status quo fundamentally, it is
usually considered path-breaking.
• The alliances helps in acceleration of Innovation to the of find of the vaccine, through the
process efficiencies, Resource dependence ,Complementary resource alignment.
• By forming an alliance and combining the resources, the risk involved in the development of
the vaccine is distributed and the development is accelerated.
•  For pfizer, the international alliances are a growth strategy that help in grooming their core
capabilities, gain access to new markets through their relationships with the external
environment. They work majorly on the Resource complementary where each firm
contributes to the dissimilar resources and capitalize their well-defined competencies mainly
to leverage them in reducing the Cost of production and operating