Innovation Hub

THE FUTURE OF PFIZER

By Brittany Nay | Photo courtesy of Pfizer Inc.

St. Louis scientists at global biotech company Pfizer played a crucial role in creating its COVID-19 vaccine.LN recently spoke with Justin Sperry, site lead at the company’s research and development facility in Chesterfield and vice president of transformational technology for biotherapeutics and vaccines, to learn more about Pfizer’s innovative response to the pandemic.

Describe your site’s role in creating Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

The St. Louis site was responsible for two key activities during the COVID-19 vaccine development: one involving the manufacturing of a key starting material, and the other in developing the testing strategies for the entire vaccine process.

What innovative steps have been taken to meet the growing demand for your work?

First and foremost, we prioritized the wellbeing of our colleagues. Without their hard work, dedication to our mission and relentless efforts, our innovative medicines would not reach patients in need.

A key aspect of our success over the last few years has been to expand our workforce through the hiring of highly skilled scientists from the region. Our regional universities and colleagues have done an excellent job training the next generation of creative, innovative and hardworking scientists.

Pfizer continues to invest in core technologies for manufacturing, testing and digital initiatives. These investments build upon our state-of-the-art foundation in biological medicines and vaccines, allow our colleagues to remain flexible in their work and provide unique ways to collaborate across our entire network.

How have staffing and hours risen in response to the pandemic?

Currently, we have around 750 employees on-site, but at the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020, that number was around 600. We hired many new scientists and support staff over the last two years to keep up with [the] workload. We have exceeded capacity [at] our new site!

Other disease did not stop during the pandemic, [so] it was critically important to keep our diverse clinical programs moving forward, while also delivering many aspects of the COVID-19 vaccine. We accomplished this through great teamwork and collaboration, and a tremendous amount of hard work by our people. It is critically important to hire people that not only enjoy the ever-changing landscape of science, but also appreciate and are energized to work on highly effective teams.

We provided colleagues completely flexible work hours, as they were all balancing their own home situations, too. In general, hours increased for most colleagues, as we were trying to address not only the vaccine development but [also] continuing the progress of other medicines in the portfolio. Many nights, weekends and holidays were worked in order to progress this enormous effort.

What is your site currently working on?

In addition to the many other biological medicines for oncology, inflammation, rare disease and vaccines in the portfolio, the St. Louis site works on our RNA platform of technologies and products. We continue to support the approved vaccine, along with the current clinical program for an RNA flu vaccine. An omicronspecific vaccine [has started] clinical trials. ln Pfizer Inc., 875 Chesterfield Parkway West, Chesterfield, pfizer.com