Four academicians report that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is unable to fulfill a request for data on the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine in a timely way, with compliance taking 55 years. “That may sound absurd,” write the academicians “but if you’re experienced with FOIA requests to the FDA, as we are, the slow timeline is just more proof that the agency needs a proactive, well-funded data-sharing system to protect public trust and promote scientific research.” (The Washington Post, December 14, 2021, by Christopher J. Morten, Reshma Rmachandran, Joseph S. Ross and Amy Kapczynski)
The group of professionals suing the FDA point to other incidents of expedited data production as evidence that the FDA can work faster. The group argues that without the data it is impossible to show the efficacy of the vaccine review process. (Reuters, December 13, 2021, by Jenna Greene)