Amid all the hand-shaking and back-patting, it was perhaps the word “friendship” that stood out the most when the CEO of Pfizer joined President Trump to address a drug pricing deal in the Oval Office .

“But most of all, Mr. President, I want to thank you for your leadership and for your friendship,” Albert Bourla, the drug giant’s top executive, said from an Oval Office podium.

It was notable, in particular, because the Trump administration’s posture toward the pharmaceutical industry has largely been driven by forces that are not typically marks of friendship: threats , and a tense negotiation .

The gathering on Tuesday, however, made clear that Bourla’s relationship with Trump, forged at the height of the Covid pandemic when Pfizer was developing its vaccine, had allowed him to

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