More signs that Donald Trump is trying to get a rush a vaccine to market. Today, CNN is reporting that the President is personally “calling drug companies to check on their vaccine trials, asking how much longer they’ll take and ginning up the pressure around his desire for a vaccine before Election Day.”
In his conversations with major drug-makers working on coronavirus vaccines, Trump has been explicit in telling the companies’ CEOs that he’d like to see a vaccine move quicker than some of his health advisers say is reasonable, according to a person familiar with the conversations. He has asked whether they believe they can speed up their timelines and has suggested he is concerned that the FDA’s regulatory process could slow down progress.
But at least one drug manufacturer is pushing back today. In a series of social media posts Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla wrote:
“Pfizer has never discussed @US_FDA’s #COVID19 vaccine guidelines with the White House and will never do so as it could undermine the agency’s independence.”
This all comes just a day after the New York Times reported that “top White House officials are blocking strict new federal guidelines for the emergency release of a coronavirus vaccine, objecting to a provision that would almost certainly guarantee that no vaccine could be authorized before the election on Nov. 3, according to people familiar with the approval process.”