Meg Ruesch ’87 on Her Year developing the Vaccine That is Changing Our Lives

It was late Sunday, early Monday morning on November 9, 2020, when it was announced that the results of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine trials showed the vaccine was more than 90 percent effective in preventing COVID.

“We had been gearing up to produce vaccine since we started working on this (last) March,” said Dr. Margaret “Meg” Taylor Ruesch ’87, vice president of research and development at Pfizer in Boston. “We were all waiting for clinical readout.” When they received the news, “it was such a huge moment. We’ve all worked on projects that for whatever reason, biologically, don’t work out.”

“This was a huge celebration and then – gulp – we’ve really got to make as much vaccine as possible.”

When they received the order in March to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 and plan to manufacture 50 to 60 million doses by the end of 2020, Meg said the team of biologists, biochemists and engineers set about asking questions like:

• How do you make vaccine at a large scale?

• What are the critical attributes of vaccine to test on every batch?

• How should the vaccine be stored to ensure quality?

The goal this year is to make 2 billion doses. Meg says their team approaches their work with a great sense of purpose. Their motto is, “Science will win.” As she discusses in our Beyond Beaumont Podcast, when you’re given such a tall order that literally changes the trajectory of lives across the globe, you start by working across disciplines with a lot of people trying to figure out how to develop a process to manufacture a high-quality, safe, consistent, and effective vaccine in large numbers.

Working with external stakeholders, including their partners at the German company BioNTech, regulatory agencies and vendors, Meg said it was critical to be flexible and open to collaboration, even working through the Thanksgiving holiday with European regulators. In February, Pfizer reported that it had cut the vaccine production time by nearly 50 percent, with Meg’s team working to consistently and safely improve manufacturing capacity toward that two-billion dose goal.

In addition to our conversation about COVID vaccine – which Beaumont faculty, staff and coaches have received – Meg also talks about the importance of mentors, balancing being a mother, wife and researcher, navigating a career in the sciences as a woman, and how Beaumont prepared her for her role. — Wendy Hoke

Hear Wendy’s full conversation with Meg on the Beyond Beaumont Podcast at: beaumontschool.org/podcasts.

Original Article: https://www.beaumontschool.org/news/2021/04/15/beaumont-news-winterspring-2021-frontline-heroes-living-dynamic-adaptability