(Reuters) – Vaccine developers Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc have rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s invitation to attend a White House “Vaccine Summit”, Stat News reported on Monday, citing sources familiar with the event’s planning.
The meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, comes ahead of U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) review of Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine candidates. It will be attended by Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and private-sector executives. (https://bit.ly/3mUcmc5)
Moderna and Pfizer did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.
Invitees at the meeting include drug distributors, pharmacies and logistics companies such as McKesson Corp, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc, CVS Health Corp, United Parcel Service Inc and FedEx Corp.
Industry officials familiar with the plans for the summit interpret it as an opportunity for the White House to pressure the FDA to quickly issue emergency use authorizations for the two vaccines candidates, the Stat reported last week.
(Reporting by Dania Nadeem in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
