Moderna, Pfizer contradict Trump vaccine timeline
Moderna and Pfizer, two of the major pharmaceutical companies with coronavirus vaccine candidates under development, have signaled in recent days that their treatments won’t be ready by the election, as the White House has suggested recently.
Pfizer Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla told employees Thursday that the company is “moving at the speed of science,” rather than under any political timing, according to a letter sent to the company’s staff.
President Trump has insisted that a vaccine will be ready before Election Day, saying in Tuesday’s presidential debate, “I’ve spoken to Pfizer, I’ve spoken to all of the people that you have to speak to, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and others,” he said.
“They can go faster than that by a lot,” Trump claimed.
Bourla told employees he was disappointed that its work was politicized during the debate and tried to reassure U.S. staff that the company won’t bend to pressure to move more quickly.
Pfizer has said that it
expects to have data from its ongoing late-stage test by October that could show whether the vaccine is safe and effective.
Second company
Pfizer is the second company this week pledging not to rush along a vaccine candidate.
Moderna’s CEO Stephane Bancel told the Financial Times Wednesday, “I
think a late (first quarter), early (second quarter) approval is a reasonable timeline, based on what we know from our vaccine.” Moderna, based in Cambridge, won’t be ready to apply for emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration before Nov. 25 at the earliest, according to Bancel.
Moderna’s vaccine is a
front runner in the ongoing race to beat back the pandemic, and results from an early safety study in older adults showed that the vaccine produced virus-neutralizing antibodies at levels similar to those seen in younger adults, according to Moderna.