Drug makers Pfizer and Moderna will not attend a White House summit on Covid-19 vaccines and their distribution Tuesday, despite being two of the companies behind developing those vaccines.
The White House said that’s because the administration felt it was more important for regulators to attend and explain the authorization process to the American people.
During a background call with reporters Monday, a senior administration official said that while both companies were involved with “initial discussions” of the planning of the summit, “there was a change of direction in light of the fact we would have the regulator participating in the event.”
“It was more appropriate not to add one or more vaccine companies with pending applications before the FDA,” the official said.
Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA official in charge of which Covid vaccines get authorized, will attend to, “explain to the audience how the FDA goes about reviewing vaccines, and how thorough they are just why the FDA review process is the gold standard for the world.”
“We thought it was quite important to come for his session he’s going to leave shortly after that to get back to work,” another official said later.
The White House claimed that “several vaccine manufacturers” had contacted organizers, some unsolicited, and had early discussions about participating.
“We thought Peter Marks, if we’re trying to instill greater confidence, would be an independent voice for quality and effectiveness. And that would be more effective than the companies who are producing the vaccines themselves,” an official said, adding that, “from a regulatory perspective we cannot have the person in the room who is going to adjudicate emergencies use authorization with those who have submitted it during that evaluation period.”
Also absent from the list of participants is Dr. Anthony Fauci. A senior administration official said Fauci was invited and wanted to participate, but wasn’t able to because of an “important scheduling issue.”
