New Delhi, Feb. 27 -- For Pfizer Inc., the strategy has been "go big, or go home". When the covid-19 pandemic first hit, Pfizer's big bet on its partnership with BioNTech SE hit a home run. In 2020, the Pfizer-BioNTech partnership swooped in as a saviour with their covid-19 mRNA vaccine, Comirnaty. It was one of the first vaccines to receive emergency approval during the pandemic, and Pfizer quickly followed it up with its antiviral drug Paxlovid.

This Covid portfolio was supposed to take the company to new heights.

However, the all-or-nothing strategy has taken Pfizer downhill in recent years. To quote its chief executive, the "pride of the pharmaceutical industry" has "ended up in a situation that very rapidly deteriorated".

The covi...