As FDA’s work­load buck­les un­der the strain, Trump again ac­cus­es the agency of a po­lit­i­cal hit job

Pe­ter Marks ap­peared be­fore a vir­tu­al SVB Leerink au­di­ence yes­ter­day and said that his staff at FDA’s CBER is on the verge of work­ing around the clock. Man­u­fac­tur­ing in­spec­tions, pol­i­cy work and spon­sor com­mu­ni­ca­tions have all been pushed down the to-do list so that they can be re­spon­sive to Covid-re­lat­ed in­ter­ac­tions. And the agency’s ob­jec­tive right now? “To save as many lives as we can,” Marks said, liken­ing the mor­tal­i­ty on the cur­rent out­break as equiv­a­lent to “a nu­clear bomb on a small city.”

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER