The general director of the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, Albert Burla, is the winner of the prestigious Israeli Genesis prize for the development of a vaccine against covid-19, it was announced today.
The $XNUMX million prize is awarded annually for professional achievement, contribution to humanity and commitment to Jewish values.
According to the Genesis Prize Foundation, Burla received the majority of votes in an online campaign in which approximately 200.000 people from 71 countries participated.
He was praised for his "leadership, determination and especially his willingness to take big risks."
In addition, it is recalled that Burla refused funding from the US government at the beginning of the pandemic, which helped the company to avoid bureaucracy and speed up the development of the vaccine.
Pfizer's partner, Biontek, received funding from the German government and Pfizer later signed a major supply deal with the US.
Such a strategy has put Pfizer at the forefront of efforts to fight the coronavirus, and the company's vaccines are the first to be approved for use in the US and Europe.
A native of Greece, Burla is the son of Holocaust survivors and he plans to give his prize to projects aimed at preserving the memory of Holocaust victims, especially in Greece, the foundation announced.
His parents are one of the few survivors of the Jewish community of Thessaloniki, which was almost eradicated by the Nazis in World War II.
Burla announced that he was accepting the award "humbly and on behalf of all colleagues at Pfizer who responded to the urgent call of history" and expressed hope that he would be able to come to Israel in June to receive it.
Pfizer's vaccine was approved in the US for emergency use in December 2020, and Israel soon became one of the first countries to immunize its population with the vaccine.
Later, Israel signed an agreement with Pfizer to share data in exchange for continued supplies at a time when the vaccine was hard to come by.
Thus, at the very beginning, Israel became a world leader in the fight against covid-19 and provided researchers with valuable data, although it was criticized for violating privacy and highlighting unequal access to the vaccine between rich and poor countries.
Today, Burla joined the ranks of celebrities who won the Genesis Award.
Last year's winner was Hollywood mogul Steven Spielberg.
Previous winners include businessman and former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg, actor Michael Douglas, violinist Isaac Perlman, sculptor Anish Kapoor, owner of the American football club New England Patriots Robert Kraft, actress Natalie Portman and Soviet political prisoner Natan Sharansky.
In 2018, Natalie Portman refused to attend the award ceremony because she did not want it to be seen as a support for then-Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu.
In the same year, the late US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsburg received a special Lifetime Achievement Award.
The award was inaugurated in 2014.
The year before and last year, due to the pandemic, the award ceremony was not held.
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