Playing a Decisive Role in Securing Pfizer Vaccines 'Toktok'... How Did Lee Jae-yong Break Through?

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Seoyoung Kwon] The significant role of Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong in securing Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine has recently come to light.

According to political circles today (24th), the government's negotiations with Pfizer last year showed little progress even until early December, the scheduled conclusion period. Government officials were unable to secure a negotiation channel with senior Pfizer executives and continued early vaccine procurement talks with operational executives responsible for sales in the Asia region.

However, in this frustrating situation, Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong reportedly found a breakthrough. Several political and business figures revealed that while reviewing Pfizer-related materials, Lee discovered Shantanu Narayen, Adobe's chairman, on the list of outside directors?someone he had long interacted with.

Vice Chairman Lee directly called Chairman Narayen, who was on vacation, and was introduced to Pfizer's chairman and head of vaccine operations. Subsequently, on December 22 last year, a video conference was held with senior Pfizer executives, Jeong Eun-kyung, Director of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, and Park Neung-hoo, then Minister of Health and Welfare.

Lee also provided a crucial lead during the negotiations. Based on information that Pfizer was highly interested in low dead space (LDS) syringes, Samsung proposed a negotiation card. As a result, the Pfizer vaccine, initially scheduled for supply in the third quarter of this year, was introduced domestically starting in March.

Meanwhile, the Pfizer vaccine has been reported to have relatively fewer side effects among COVID-19 vaccines. According to foreign media reports, in negotiations with the European Union (EU) for 1.8 billion doses of vaccines to be used next year and the year after, Pfizer reportedly asked for a price about 26% higher than the supply price in November last year. South Korea has also expressed its intention to purchase additional doses from Pfizer, but difficulties in securing them continue.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.