The company that CNN article is referring to is called BioNTech, not Pfizer, and they have been working on RNA based therapeutics (mostly as cancer treatments)

The company that CNN article is referring to is called BioNTech, not Pfizer, and they have been working on RNA based therapeutics (mostly as cancer treatments) for a long time. They started working on the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in January 2020. As is often the case when a relatively small pharmaceutical company develops a new product, they teamed up with Pfizer to run the trials, manufacturing and logistics. The article misrepresents this in multiple ways.