FDA: COVID-19 vaccine candidates should meet a higher bar for an emergency authorization than other medical products. Trump: Maybe, maybe not.
The disconnect between assurances from federal health and science agencies and President Trump’s words continues. Before Wednesday’s hearing in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, news broke that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has plans to implement special Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) requirements for COVID-19 vaccine candidates. The vaccine EUA requirements proposed by FDA are reported to be more stringent than those for non-vaccine products like hydroxychloroquine or COVID-19 convalescent plasma. FDA Commissioner Hahn alluded to the application of the more stringent standards in his testimony during the hearing, but later in the day the president indicated that his administration may decide to reject the FDA’s proposal.
President Trump may reject FDA COVID-19 vaccine candidate guidelines
On Wednesday, President Trump cast doubt on whether the White House would greenlight FDA’s proposed rules for evaluating COVID-19 vaccine candidates that pharmaceutical companies could submit for approval via the EUA mechanism. An EUA is a temporary clearance for medical products that can be conferred more rapidly and with less documentation than a full approval, which can take six to nine months. Standard EUAs require only that a product “may be effective,” and that the likely benefits to people outweigh the harms. In 2005, the anthrax vaccine was granted an EUA so military personnel considered at high risk of anthrax attack could receive the product, the only instance of an EUA being issued for a vaccine.
Because the vaccine would be administered to a broad population to prevent illness, as opposed to patients suffering from COVID-19, FDA has proposed to strengthen the EUA process. That proposal is now awaiting review in the White House Office of Management and Budget. In a shocking televised press conference, the president characterized the FDA proposal as a “political move.” FDA officials believe a different standard for EUAs for vaccine safety and efficacy, as opposed to EUAs for medical products like hydroxychloroquine (since revoked) and convalescent plasma, is appropriate since vaccines are given to healthy people, not to those who are sick. To earn an EUA, reports indicate the FDA plans to require clinical trial data for COVID-19 vaccine candidates that are close to what is required for a full approval. Specifically, the standards would require monitoring participants in late-stage clinical trials for a median of at least two months, starting after they receive a second vaccine shot (if the vaccine requires two shots), as well as reaching at least five severe cases of COVID-19 in the placebo group for each trial, and some cases of the disease in the elderly. Regardless, any EUA would be based on less safety data than the standard approval track, so clinical trial participants would be monitored well after an EUA, if one were to be issued.
The public will be able to evaluate FDA-reviewed COVID-19 vaccine candidates
As part of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate evaluation process, FDA plans to get the advice of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), made up of experts in “immunology, molecular biology, recombinant DNA, virology, bacteriology, epidemiology or biostatistics, vaccine policy, vaccine safety science, federal immunization activities, vaccine development including translational and clinical evaluation programs, allergy, preventive medicine, infectious diseases, pediatrics, microbiology, and biochemistry.” These experts are screened for ethical conflicts, and are independent of both the US Government and vaccine-making companies. Notably, the VRBPAC chair recently recused herself from the review of COVID-19 vaccine candidates because she is running Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate clinical trial.
FDA Commissioner Hahn, pressed by Senator Maggie Hassan (D, NH; 2:29:32 mark in video), made it clear that when a vaccine-making company either submits a COVID-19 vaccine candidate application for full approval or requests an EUA, clinical trial data and the FDA summary assessing the data will be provided to VRBPAC as well as to the entire American public. Dr. Hahn also noted that VRBPAC’s discussion, vote, and recommendations will all be public. The public will then have an opportunity to provide comments. FDA will incorporate feedback from VRBPAC into its process, and make a final decision on approval or EUA.
It is important to note, however, that the VRBPAC recommendations are not binding. In other words, the FDA commissioner, Department of Health and Human Services secretary, or possibly even the president have the authority to grant an EUA, irrespective of VRBPAC’s recommendations.
Even so, the opportunity for the entire science and medical community to review COVID-19 vaccine candidate data should help ensure that the public can learn the extent to which COVID-19 vaccine candidates are known to be safe and effective.
The outlook for COVID-19 vaccine availability
At Wednesday’s hearing, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the Committee (2:37:41 mark in video) that if all goes well with vaccine-makers’ COVID-19 vaccine candidate clinical trials, that in November, there possibly could be 50 million doses available, about 100 million more doses in December, and roughly 700 million total doses by April. He said that the vaccines will likely be given to healthcare providers and those who are vulnerable due to underlying conditions first. However, Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of VRBPAC, recently told the Washington Post that “It’s hard to imagine how an [emergency use authorization] could possibly occur before December,” indicating the availability of COVID-19 vaccines in November is not certain.
FAS is tracking this situation closely; for an opportunity to contribute to oversight over the COVID-19 vaccine candidate evaluation process, click here.
Additional hearing highlights
Dr. Fauci pushes back on Senator Rand Paul in an exchange about herd immunity
Attention called to head of Operation Warp Speed’s potential conflicts of interest
More than 90 percent of Americans remain susceptible to the coronavirus
To review the entire hearing, click here.
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