Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination for Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary cleared a key Senate committee today. Should Big Pharma be worried? Not so much, Pfizer (PFE) CEO Albert Bourla said in an interview with Yahoo Finance. 

In fact, he said that RFK's views on vaccines are not as radical as publicly perceived. 

He isn't the only one to have had closed-door meetings with RFK and left with the same conclusion. Bourla said that he met with Kennedy and President Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago prior to Trump taking office. Trump brought up the topic of vaccines.

"Mr. Kennedy had very modest views. So, he tempered his views on vaccines, at least in our discussions, very much. If he will do things to try and undermine the capability of vaccines, I think the medical community, the payers ... will all oppose him," Bourla told Yahoo Finance. 

That has already been the case. Kennedy became a controversial Trump pick last year when he was first nominated for the position of HHS secretary, spurring opposition campaigns from doctor and science groups alike. Despite his past actions against the medical and science communities, including lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies, Bourla and others who have had closed-door discussions with RFK and Trump are swayed to back him. That includes Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who voted to support RFK's nomination after several meetings, despite having concerns as a physician with 30 years' experience and a clear understanding of the value of vaccines.

But the hazards of rescinding childhood vaccine recommendations appear to be a key reason why RFK may be publicly trying to establish a more moderate tone. 

Trump "doesn't want another health crisis in one of his terms," Bourla said.

That was evident during the confirmation hearings in both the Senate Finance as well as Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committees, where RFK claimed he would support the childhood vaccine schedule.

But he also declined numerous opportunities to declare vaccines safe and effective and denounce the claim that vaccines cause autism — despite ample evidence to the contrary. When asked by Sen. Bernie Sanders if the COVID-19 vaccine saved millions of lives, RFK said he didn't know.

"I don't know, we don't have a good surveillance system, unfortunately. I don't think anybody can say that. If you show me the science that says that..." Kennedy replied, before being cut off by Sanders' retort that he should know the science himself, since he's applying for the job.

REUTERS / Reuters

The COVID-19 vaccine has been a crowning achievement for Pfizer in the company's recent history and forged a relationship between Bourla and Trump in his first term. That relationship puts Bourla in a close position of power, timed with the fact that he will become the chair of the drug industry's biggest lobbying firm, PhRMA, this year.

"I plan to engage a lot with them, first of all because I have a good relationship personally, but also I'm about to be the chairman of PhRMA, so also from an institutional perspective, I'm going to be discussing quite a bit," Bourla said.

Bourla sees this new administration as "bold" and "aggressive" on whatever policy they are aligned with, which bodes well for the industry. He views the previous administration as bad for business, and blames Biden-era policies for the drying up of biotech deals in the past few years, as well as the battle to kill the drug pricing negotiations that eventually became law as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Bourla is waiting to see how the Trump administration handles the Medicare drug pricing negotiations, which include two of Pfizer's drugs in the next round of negotiations.

"I don't know, because frankly we didn't discuss the topic. We discussed the topic of cancer a lot. The president has a very high interest in cancer, so he asked a lot of questions, every time, about can we find a cure and when. I had this discussion with Mr. Kennedy, as well. We didn't discuss IRA and I don't know what he will do in any of that," Bourla said.

But Bourla added that he isn't worried about the newly targeted drugs because the timeframe works out in Pfizer's favor — the patents for both breast cancer drug Ibrance and prostate cancer drug Xtandi will expire shortly after the new prices go into effect. 

So the impact, Bourla said, should be minimal.

Anjalee Khemlani is the senior health reporter at Yahoo Finance, covering all things pharma, insurance, care services, digital health, PBMs, and health policy and politics. That includes GLP-1s, of course. Follow Anjalee on social media platforms X, LinkedIn, and Bluesky @AnjKhem.

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