A spokesperson for Moderna, which is also awaiting Food and Drug Administration approval for the use of its COVID-19 vaccine, said in a statement that Operation Warp Speed contacted the company “to be
part of a meeting at the White House concerning COVID-19 vaccine plans” and that Moderna “indicated its willingness to participate,” Stat reported. The company learned later that “based on the meeting’s agenda, its participation would not be required,” the statement noted.
An FDA representative insisted on Monday that the drugmakers had actually been excluded from the meeting because agency officials were concerned about the
impropriety of executives mingling at the White House with FDA members who are charged with approving their vaccines, Bloomberg reported.
But it was unclear if the White House decision to exclude Pfizer and Moderna was made before or after Pfizer turned down the invitation. Company executives’ names were included in an
invitation to the summit obtained a week ago by Stat.
White House spokesperson Brian Morgenstern said last Tuesday that the president “looks forward to convening leaders from the federal government, state governments,
private sector, military, and scientific community.”
The summit is scheduled two days before an FDA advisory committee is set to publicly examine data from Pfizer regarding its vaccine. A similar hearing for Moderna’s vaccine is set for Dec. 17.
The event is regarded by some industry officials as a public relations ploy by Trump to again
claim credit for the rapid development of the crucial vaccines — and to pressure the FDA to approve them, Stat noted.
Trump boasted late last month that he was the one who “came up with” the vaccines.
“I came up with vaccines that people didn’t think we’d have for five years,” Trump said in a Fox News interview. He also boasted on Twitter, using a racist term for the coronavirus, that the private drug companies developed the vaccines “
on my watch!”
