The FDA cancels the meeting of vaccine experts to advise on flu vaccines

Panel of scientific experts that advises the Food and Drug Administration in the field of vaccine policy – and this was the purpose of criticism on the part of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – He learned on Wednesday that the upcoming meeting about discussion of flu vaccines was canceled next year.

On Monday afternoon, the FDA sent an e -mail to panel members, vaccines and related advisory committees related to biological products, informing them about the appeal, in accordance with a higher official familiar with the decision. There was no reason. The panel was to meet on March 13.

One member of the committee, Dr. Paul oft from the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, sincere critic of Mr. Kennedy, confirmed the cancellation and warned that he could interfere or delay the production of influenza vaccines.

“This is a six-month production cycle,” said Dr. Officit. “You can only assume that this year we do not choose flu strains.”

Cancellation – and postponing a similar meeting of scientific advisers in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention last week – plays fears among scientists who are afraid that Mr. Kennedy will utilize his perch to sit doubts about vaccines and disturb the regulatory process that leads to their approval.

Richard Hughes, a lawyer of some vaccine producers, said that the postponement concerned from the schedule of creating a flu vaccine, which is quite harsh. The strains are usually chosen at the FDA meeting in February or March, using data from the World Health Organization – relationships that the United States has passed at the beginning of the Trump administration. He said that production begins in June.

“The stake is extremely high,” he said, noting that this year’s flu season was particularly intense.

According to CDC86 children and 19,000 adults died of flu this season. About 430,000 people were hospitalized. Hughes said that in June the CDC Committee tends to decide whether to advise on the utilize of a vaccine that launches the insurance and government insurance of vaccines.

As a presidential candidate, and recently as a supporter of President Trump, Kennedy repeatedly warned against “regulatory capture” – the idea that the federal regulatory bodies are in captivity for industry. He said that he intends to eradicate conflicts of interest in scientific panels that advise Federal Regulatory Authorities.

Among those who stood out Mr. Kennedy is Dr. Officer, inventor of rotavirus vaccine, which was later developed by the Merck pharmaceutical giant and approved by the FDA in 2006, before Dr. Officit sat in the FDA advisory panel. Dr. Officit studies were financed by the National Institutes of Health, not a pharmaceutical company; His hospital, which was the owner of a patent for the vaccine, licensed the patent for Merck.

Committee members are currently obliged to announce cooperation and withdraw from voting in matters in which they have financial participation. Mr. Kennedy suggested that he wanted more strict restrictions.

The meeting of the Advisory Committee for Vaccination Practices would include topics related to many vaccines, including those that protect against human papilloma. Mr. Kennedy was seriously critical of this vaccine and worked on a trial against her creator, Merck. He said he would donate all fees obtained from the trial of an adult son.