South by South­west fes­ti­val re­turns live with cool mu­sic, film de­buts — and a hand­ful of phar­mas

Once up­on a time, mu­sic setlists were the biggest news out of South by South­west. Now? Pfiz­er CEO Al­bert Bourla will be speak­ing in a live ses­sion Mon­day about the race to cre­ate a Covid-19 vac­cine.

Me­dia and en­ter­tain­ment still take cen­ter stage at the now 35-year-old an­nu­al event in Austin, Texas, which opens Fri­day. How­ev­er, health­care and yes, even phar­ma, have land­ed side gig sta­tus over the past few years. Health and Medtech are now one of 15 con­fer­ence tracks at SXSW.

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