In September Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla explained that his company rejected offers of taxpayer money through the US Government’s ‘Operation Warp Speed‘ programme because it would slow down vaccine development.
Speaking to Face The Nation, Dr. Bourla explained that he “wanted to liberate our scientists from any bureaucracy” so they can focus on the science. Today, his “get the government out of the way” approach appears to have worked. Read his prescient remarks in full:
“If it fails, it goes to our pocket. And at the end of the day, it’s only money. That will not break the company, although it is going to be painful because we are investing one billion and a half at least in COVID right now.
But the reason why I did it was because I wanted to liberate our scientists from any bureaucracy. When you get money from someone that always comes with strings. They want to see how we are going to progress, what type of moves you are going to do. They want reports. I didn’t want to have any of that.
Basically I gave them an open chequebook so that they can worry only about scientific challenges, not anything else. And also, I wanted to keep Pfizer out of politics, by the way.”
Governments may be better at locking people down. Free markets are better at innovating to liberate people…
The fiancee of one of UKIP’s leadership candidates has accused him of cheating after she found a half empty box of Viagra in his car. MEP Bill Etheridge’s partner Lorraine Chew last night called him a “dirty disgusting cheat” when she found this half-empty packet of little blue pills:
Just a few days ago Etheridge had tweeted to apologise to his fiancee for “neglecting” her:
It all kicked off at UKIP’s leadership hustings last night when, according to multiple witnesses, a senior UKIP activist “started screaming and shouting” at a rival camp, accusing them of re-tweeting the above image. UKIP HQ then sent messages to all involved asking them to delete their tweets about the matter because they want “a fair and decent fight”. Another leadership candidate embarrassed by links to Pfizer…
Owen Smith has hired a leading corporate lobbyist who works for Pfizer to run his leadership campaign, Guido can reveal. John Lehal is the smoothie MD of lobbying firm Insight Consulting, and boasts among his clients Big Pharma giants Pfizer, Novartis and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Lehal’s dealings sparked controversy when he was signed up to run Andy Burnham’s doomed leadership bid last year. Smith used to spin for Pfizer himself and has been dogged by his links to lobbyists over the last week, so it’s a stunning judgment call for him to be using another Pfizer lobbyist who loves Tony Blair:
John Lehal declined several opportunities to comment. A spokesman for Owen Smith doesn’t deny Lehal is working on the campaign:
“The campaign is still in the process of being set up and no formal paid appointments have yet been made. We expect to be able to finalise staff details at a later date.”
Owen Smith is the Blairite former Big Pharma lobbyist whose campaign is being run by a Blairite Big Pharma lobbyist. Too easy for the Corbynistas…
UPDATE: Smith’s team have now confirmed Lehal will be their Chief of Operations. He’s also signed up Corbyn’s former policy chief Neale Coleman.
