House E&C leaders seek additional information from pharma companies on COVID-19 vaccine

Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee are seeking information from the nine pharmaceutical companies developing COVID-19 vaccines about their research and development efforts and how they are ensuring that only a safe and effective product will be made publicly available.

The leaders of the nine pharmaceutical companies — AstraZeneca, BioNTech, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Moderna, Novavax, Pfizer, and Sanofi — signed a pledge last week committing “to developing and testing potential vaccines for COVID-19 in accordance with high ethical standards and sound scientific principles.”

The committee leaders applauded the pharmaceutical companies on their safety pledge but are seeking additional commitments to transparency.

“We appreciate your company’s efforts to develop a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine and value the commitments your company and FDA leadership have made to uphold the scientific integrity of the approval process. “While we look forward to the timely availability of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine that the public can trust, we are concerned that increasing political pressure threatens this achievement. We implore you to fulfill the commitments you made in your announcement to ensure science and safety drive the process. We also strongly encourage you to take steps to make the process more transparent in order to regain the trust and confidence of the American people in a future COVID-19 vaccine,” E&C Chairman Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Health Subcommittee Chair Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chair Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) wrote in a letter to the pharmaceutical companies.

The pledge was signed following a series of remarks from President Donald Trump suggesting the vaccine may be available by Election Day.

“Unfortunately, the Trump Administration’s track-record of prioritizing politics over science and the President’s recent remarks appear to be eroding some of the public’s trust in a future vaccine,” the E&C committee leaders wrote in the letter. “While one in three people indicated in July that they would get the vaccine when it became available, now just one in five people say they would get the vaccine once available.”