This is the web version of CEO Daily. To get it delivered to your inbox, sign up here.
Good morning.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CEOs assembled by Fortune and McKinsey yesterday that there is a “more than 60% chance” his company will know by the end of October whether its vaccine works. Pfizer has already vaccinated some 26,000 people in its Phase III trials, and company modeling shows the results should be in by the end of next month.
Bourla spoke on the day he and CEOs of other pharma companies published full page ads in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal pledging not to deploy a vaccine until scientific studies were complete—an effort to show vaccine timing will be driven by science, not politics. Bourla acknowledged that the late October date, coming right before the election, created the perception of political involvement, which could undermine confidence in the vaccine. “I feel that every day. Many times, I thought, ‘if it could just be a week later…’ But we need to stay the course. If the results come faster, it is better for society.”
The CEO discussion focused on the importance of purpose in business, and Bourla offered the vaccine as an example. “I was amazed by how quickly my organization moved, and I think it was only because of the purpose,” he said. He noted Moderna was the first company to put its vaccine into clinical trials, and Pfizer started two months later. Yet both started Phase III trials on the same day. That kind of fast action “is not what you expect from a big, monolithic, goliath company like Pfizer. I was surprised we were able to do that. The only reason we were able to do that is because we gave them one purpose: Go back and calculate how many people will die if you don’t do it this fall.”
Bourla said the vaccine effort is improving the reputation of his industry, which was in the dumps before the pandemic “not only because of bad players, but also because of us. For years, for example, the CEOs of Pfizer were speaking of how much money we made from Lipitor instead of pointing out how many hundreds of millions of lives were saved by Lipitor. We did it to ourselves.”
Other CEOs who participated in the discussion included Darius Adamczyk of Honeywell, Deanna Mulligan of Guardian Life, John Visentin of Xerox, Stan Bergman of Henry Schein, Doug Peterson of S&P, Penny Pennington of Edward Jones, John Driscoll of Care Centrix and Basheer Janjua of Calculi. All agreed that the role of purpose in business is on the rise. “We know that people who feel purpose at work are four times more engaged,” said McKinsey’s Bruce Simpson. “There is really good science behind this. And in a world where 70% of the workforce is not engaged, that’s a huge uptick, in multiple dimensions.”
More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
TOP NEWS
Data doom
The Irish privacy watchdog has told Facebook it will probably have to stop transferring Europeans' personal data to the U.S., following court rulings that (possibly) destroyed the legal basis for it doing so. Whether or not Facebook manages to drag out the case further, it's a big blow for Big Tech's European aspirations. Fortune
TikTok sale
China's ByteDance is reportedly talking to the Trump administration about sidestepping a forced sale of TikTok's U.S. operations. "People familiar with the matter" say ByteDance is hoping to get away with some sort of restructuring that involves a U.S. tech partner securing TikTok's data and perhaps taking a minority stake. Wall Street Journal
LVMH and Tiffany
LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton announced yesterday that it was pulling out of its planned $16 billion takeover of Tiffany & Company, thanks to a request from the French government to delay the closing, plus the pandemic's effect on the luxury industry. Now Tiffany is suing LVMH in an attempt to force the deal through. New York Times
Brexit kerfuffle
The U.K.'s attempt to skirt the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement that it ratified this year—an attempt the government freely admits would break international law—has led the EU to consider legal action. Meanwhile, over in the U.S., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has warned that the move would mean there's "absolutely no chance" of a U.S.-U.K. trade deal materializing, if peace in Northern Ireland is threatened. Fortune
AROUND THE WATER COOLER
Trump and coronavirus
President Trump knowingly underplayed the threat posed by COVID-19 in his communications with the American public, the president told legendary journalist Bob Woodward. Woodward has a new book out, making it clear that Trump was fully briefed and aware of the coronavirus's threat in late January, before he spent months holding campaign rallies and claiming that it was no more harmful than the seasonal flu. Fortune
BP wind
BP, keen to reinvent itself as the fossil-fuel industry faces major change, has taken its first step into offshore wind power. The oil giant will pay $1.1 billion for a half-stake in two U.S. projects being run by Norway's Equinor. "This is an important early step in the delivery of our new strategy," said BP CEO Bernard Looney. Financial Times
Skinny stimulus
The U.S. Senate will today vote on a scaled-back, $500 billion stimulus package proposed by the Republicans. The package is the result of the two sides' inability to agree on the extent of bipartisan package (the Democrats wants $2.2 trillion; the White House $1.3 trillion.) The "skinny stimulus" package would, if passed, provide $250 billion for another round of Paycheck Protection Program loans, over $100 billion for schools, and over $50 billion for COVID-19 testing and vaccine development. Fortune
Apple mask
Apple has made a Face Mask (Apple's capitalization) for its own corporate and retail employees. The device can be reused up to five times, and features three layers for filtering incoming and outgoing particles. Fortune
This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.
