- Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla said that he’s had dinner with Trump’s health secretary pick, RFK Jr.
- Bourla said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the new administration.
- Kennedy is now close to securing the health secretary position, pending a Senate vote.
Pfizer’s CEO said that he had dinner with President Donald Trump’s pick for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In a Tuesday earnings call, CEO Albert Bourla said Trump had introduced him to Kennedy, a longtime vaccine critic, and the duo ended up having dinner together.
Bourla did not specify when he met with Kennedy, but said they’d talked about topics they could agree on and “not on the things that we clearly disagree, like the vaccines.”
“And those are things in chronic diseases, in cardiovascular diseases, and more importantly, in cancer, which is something that is very, very high in the mind of the president. And it is also very in the mind of Mr. Kennedy,” Bourla told investors.
Bourla added that he was “cautiously optimistic” about the new administration.
“I think there are a lot of opportunities that probably outweigh the risks that we have with the radical change that we will see from the Trump administration,” he said.
Bourla said that he thinks the administration would not like to see “another health crisis,” and is optimistic that “they will be very, very prudent with everything they try to do.”
Pfizer, one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies, produces medicines and vaccines.
Kennedy, a former environmental justice lawyer, ran for president himself before dropping out of the race in August. He then aligned himself closely with Trump, who, after the elections, tapped him to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Kennedy has also established a new MAHA — Make America Healthy Again — movement, which has called to remove vaccine mandates and lobby against fluoride in the water system.
Kennedy’s tough stance on vaccines
Kennedy has taken a tough personal stance on vaccines.
In 2023, Kennedy vowed to slash funding for federal health agencies that regulate childhood vaccines if elected president.
And in May 2021, he was one of two people who jointly petitioned the Food and Drugs Administration, urging it to “immediately revoke” emergency use authorizations that allowed children under 16 to take the Pfizer and other COVID vaccines.
But shortly after Trump’s November win, Kennedy told NBC that he would not “take away anybody’s vaccines,” but would let them choose if they wanted to be vaccinated.
On Tuesday, he moved closer to becoming health secretary after winning the crucial support of Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, a former physician.
Kennedy’s nomination cleared a key hurdle and passed the Senate Finance Committee, who voted along party lines to move it forward. His nomination is now slated for a full Senate vote.
Representatives for Kennedy and Pfizer did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider, sent outside regular business hours.
