Angela Hwang

Company: Pfizer
Title: Former Chief Commercial Officer & President, Global Biopharmaceuticals Business
Industry: Pharmaceuticals
Hometown: Cape Town, South Africa
Notable in 2023: Helped close a major acquisition and supported creation of a new integrated oncology division for Pfizer.

Pfizer changed the world when it created and rolled out the first Covid-19 vaccine in record time. Angela Hwang, the company's former CCO and president of the global biopharmaceuticals business, played a critical role in that launch.

But her influence can be seen beyond Covid. With Hwang as a key leader overseeing the commercialization of products, Pfizer's vaccines and drugs treated roughly 618 million patients worldwide last year.

The pharmaceutical giant clinched a record nine Food and Drug Administration approvals for new drugs in 2023, the most of any company in the industry. Several of Pfizer's already launched products also received expanded approvals.

Among the biggest new drug launches that Hwang helped oversee last year, Pfizer rolled out one of the world's first vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus. It usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms, but can lead to more severe cases in seniors and young children.

The FDA approved Pfizer's shot, known as Abrysvo, for adults ages 60 and above in May. Three months later, the agency greenlit Abrysvo for expectant mothers, making it the first and only vaccine that protects infants against RSV from their first breath.

Hwang has also played a notable role in expanding access to the company's life-saving treatments.

In January 2023, Pfizer announced it would expand "An Accord for a Healthier World," an initiative Hwang helped lead that was launched a year earlier. Through it, the company offers its medicines and vaccines not-for-profit to 1.2 billion people in 45 lower-income countries. Pfizer increased the number of treatments it would offer from 23 to around 500 by including products that have lost their patents.

But Hwang also pushed for equity and diversity internally. She told FiercePharma in 2022 that innovation can best be accomplished when more voices are heard, understood and respected. Hwang worked with executives to establish clear DEI goals within the biopharmaceuticals division, including plans to mentor and sponsor people from diverse backgrounds.

After 27 years at Pfizer, it was recently announced that Hwang was leaving the company after a reorganization completed after the acquisition of oncology company Seagen. "I am very proud of what Albert and I have co-created – a new and agile organizational structure that will set Pfizer up for the future and help us reach a billion patients with our medicines and vaccines," she wrote in a LinkedIn post. "Given this new structure, while bittersweet, it is also the right time for me to leave Pfizer."

Hwang remains in an advisory role to the company.