Colorado Politics

Vaccine makers to appear before DeGette subcommittee

Five drug companies working on a coronavirus vaccine will testify tomorrow before the U.S. House of Representatives’ subcommittee on investigations and oversight.

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, who chairs the panel, invited officials from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Moderna and Pfizer to the hearing.

“We look forward to hearing from each of the companies about their research and development efforts, safety and efficacy standards and their ongoing preparations to manufacture and distribute an eventual vaccine,” said DeGette in a statement with U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr., D-N.J. Pallone is the chair of the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Reportedly, a vaccine from AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford has shown positive results in human trials, and its researchers recommend “large-scale evaluation of this candidate vaccine.” The vaccine is one of 23 now being tested on humans.

Last week, CNN reported that 15 past Nobel Prize winners were among those asking health agencies to speed the development of a vaccine by infecting volunteers with the virus. 

“Instead of resuming life as usual and waiting to ‘catch’ a virus, volunteers are deliberately exposed to the pathogen under controlled conditions,” reads the letter. “Beyond being faster than conventional trials, a challenge test is likelier to conclude with interpretable results.”

Those against the “human challenge trials” argue that it is unethical to expose even a consenting adult to the possibility of death, especially when no proven treatment exists.

Young boy getting a vaccine
(Photo by baona, iStock)
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