Unexpectedly, Pfizer chief Marc Kaptein became one of the faces of the COVID-19 pandemic. We spoke to Kaptein about the technology of the mRNA platform and the price of vaccines, among other things. ‘I dare to challenge the idea that mRNA technology is expensive; I think you should speak of valuable.’

After a short career in gynaecology and obstetrics, Marc Kaptein sought ‘the innovation-driven side of medicine’, as he puts it himself. He found it in the pharmaceutical industry. At the moment, he is the Dutch medical director of Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company that, with its mRNA vaccine technology, symbolises the way out of the covid pandemic for some but ‘big pharma’ for others, which by definition cannot be trusted.

Despite the responsibility Kaptein feels and the pressure he has been under for months, he appears remarkably relaxed and regularly takes time to speak to the media. This is a conscious decision, he says. ‘From the start, we felt we could make a positive contribution to the willingness to be vaccinated and we wanted to do our best to achieve this. This has led to proactive openness on Pfizer’s part. But it’s also demanded of us by the public, who are looking for information, who willingly receive it from our hands. If we wouldn’t do this, it would lead to distrust which we wanted to avoid as much as possible.’