Trump administration threatened to oust head of FDA if Pfizer vaccine is not cleared, report says
- Pfizer submitted its two-dose shot for FDA emergency approval on November 20. The regulatory body has expedited its review process
- Director of the FDA’s biologics review centre, Dr Peter Marks, previously said the review would still take weeks
The US Food and Drug Administration and Pfizer are reportedly trying to move up the announcement of the company’s Covid-19 vaccine after White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows threatened the agency commissioner’s job.
On Friday, Meadows delivered an ultimatum to the commissioner, Dr Stephen Hahn, telling him to either make the announcement green lighting the vaccine by the end of the day or submit his resignation, according to The Washington Post.
Earlier in the day, President Donald Trump lashed out at the agency on Twitter, describing it “a big, old, slow turtle”.
Hahn denied the report, calling it “untrue” in a statement to Business Insider.
“This is an untrue representation of the phone call with the Chief of Staff,” he said. “The FDA was encouraged to continue working expeditiously on Pfizer-BioNTech’s EUA request. FDA is committed to issuing this authorisation quickly, as we noted in our statement this morning.”
The White House declined to comment to the Post.