FDA un­veils top 5 pri­or­i­ties for re­work­ing its Covid-19 re­sponse mov­ing for­ward

Fol­low­ing the light­ning-quick FDA re­views of the first three Covid-19 vac­cines, and the agency’s bow­ing to po­lit­i­cal pres­sure on some of its emer­gency au­tho­riza­tions (i.e. with hy­drox­y­chloro­quine and con­va­les­cent plas­ma), the FDA last Fri­day un­veiled the top 5 Covid-re­lat­ed work ar­eas it will pri­or­i­tize mov­ing for­ward.

First and fore­most, the FDA said it will re­view its process­es for is­su­ing emer­gency use au­tho­riza­tions (EUAs) and iden­ti­fy ar­eas for im­prove­ment. Stephen Hahn, the FDA’s for­mer com­mis­sion­er, ad­mit­ted to mov­ing more quick­ly on some of the EUAs be­cause of po­lit­i­cal pres­sure, and he had to apol­o­gize for over­stat­ing the ef­fi­ca­cy of con­va­les­cent plas­ma at a press con­fer­ence af­ter the agency is­sued an EUA for the treat­ment last Au­gust.

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