Supply chain disruptions, health disparities and vaccine distribution have been marked challenges of 2021. The CEOs of Pfizer and Walgreens shared their predictions on these issues and the challenges, as well as opportunities to come in 2022 with Time on Jan. 2.
Albert Bourla, PhD, CEO of Pfizer
1. He expressed worry about global vaccine supply and delivery, telling Time, "I am concerned about the limited infrastructure and resources in the poorest countries as they struggle to administer their supply of COVID-19 vaccines to their people."
2. Dr. Bourla named the shortage of medical professionals, vaccine hesitancy due to limited educational campaigns and lack of equipment prohibiting timely delivery of vaccines as key issues to solve next year.
3. Advances in biotechnology allow for a boom in the industry. "We must leverage these advancements to make disruptive changes in the way we discover, develop and bring new medicines to patients," he told Time.
4. Dr. Bourla told Time, "I predict that we are likely to see an increase in salaries in the coming year due to inflation — and I believe this is a good thing for workers, as it will help close the gap in income inequality."
Roz Brewer, CEO of Walgreens
5. Ms. Brewer is honing in on accessible and affordable healthcare. "Healthcare is inherently local, and all communities should have equitable access to care," she said.
6. Looking at the competitive labor market, Ms. Brewer emphasized building a company culture that encourages employees to stay. "In the coming year and beyond, broadly across the market, we will see that managers will continue to become even more empathetic and listen more actively to their team members as people," she told Time.
7. While discussing supply chain disruptions, Ms. Brewer said that the last two years of the pandemic taught Walgreens a lot about how to manage such uncertainty. "Investments in technology, such as real-time supply chain visibility and predictive/prescriptive analytics, will enable companies to deliver the speed and precision expected by today's consumer," she told Time.