Each year, a $1 million prize is given to a person for their professional accomplishments, humanitarian efforts, and adherence to Jewish ideals. Bourla received the most votes in an online campaign that drew 200,000 individuals from 71 countries, according to the Genesis Prize Foundation.
Albert Bourla, chairman and chief executive of Pfizer Inc., received the renowned Genesis Prize on Wednesday for his achievements in driving the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Each year, a $1 million prize is given to a person for their professional accomplishments, humanitarian efforts, and adherence to Jewish ideals. Bourla received the most votes in an online campaign that drew 200,000 individuals from 71 countries, according to the Genesis Prize Foundation.
It praised him for his “leadership, determination, and especially his readiness to take big risks,” according to the report. It noted Pfizer’s choice to decline US government financing early in the epidemic, which helped the business cut bureaucracy and speed up vaccine research.
BioNTech, the company’s partner, secured money from the German government, and Pfizer went on to sign a substantial supply contract with the US. Pfizer was at the vanguard of global efforts to combat the coronavirus, with their vaccine being the first to be approved for use in the United States and Europe.
According to the foundation, Bourla, who was born in Greece and is the son of Holocaust survivors, wishes to contribute his prize to projects focused on preserving the memory of Holocaust victims, particularly in Greece. Bourla’s parents were among the few surviving members of Thessaloniki’s Jewish community, which was nearly exterminated by the Nazis during WWII.
Bourla accepted the medal “humbly and on behalf of all my Pfizer colleagues who answered the urgent call of history,” according to a statement released by the organization.
“I was raised in a Jewish family that taught me that each of us is only as strong as our community’s links and that we are all called upon by God to restore the world,” he said.
Pfizer’s vaccine was the first to receive emergency permission in the United States in December 2020, and Israel was one of the first countries to administer the vaccine to its citizens. It later reached an agreement with the drugmaker to trade massive amounts of data in exchange for ongoing supplies of what was then a difficult-to-find vaccine.
The agreement aided Israel’s rise to prominence as a global leader in the fight against COVID-19 and offered vital data for academics, however, it was also condemned by some for infringing on privacy and highlighting discrepancies in vaccination access between rich and poor countries.
Bourla joins a long list of entrepreneurs, artists, and performers who have won the award. The previous year’s winner was Hollywood mogul Steven Spielberg.
Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, actor Michael Douglas, violinist Itzhak Perlman, sculptor Sir Anish Kapoor, actress Natalie Portman, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and former Soviet political prisoner Natan Sharansky are among the previous winners.
Because she didn’t want to appear to be backing then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Portman skipped the award presentation in 2018. The late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg received a special lifetime achievement award the same year.
The prize was established in 2014 as a collaboration between the Genesis Prize Foundation and the chairman’s office of the Jewish Agency, a nonprofit organization with close ties to the Israeli government. The foundation established a $100 million endowment to fund it.
Every June, the honor is presented in Jerusalem at a dinner attended by Israel’s prime minister. However, because of the pandemic, the event has been postponed for the past two years. Bourla said he plans to attend the event in Jerusalem this summer.
