Richard H. Hughes, IV, Member of the Firm in the Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in The New York Times, in “F.D.A. Cancels Meeting of Vaccine Experts Scheduled to Advise on Flu Shots,” by Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Christina Jewett. (Read the full version – subscription required.)
Following is an excerpt:
A panel of scientific experts that advises the Food and Drug Administration on vaccine policy —and that has been the target of criticism from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — learned on Wednesday that its upcoming meeting to discuss next year’s flu vaccines had been canceled. …
Richard Hughes … said the postponement was concerning since the schedule for making the flu vaccine tends to be quite strict. Strains are usually selected in the F.D.A. meeting in February or March using data from the World Health Organization — a relationship the United States walked away from early in the Trump administration. He said manufacturing tends to begin in June.
“The stakes are incredibly high,” he said, noting that this year’s flu season has been especially intense.
