Vaccine makers vow not to cut corners on testing

Vaccine makers have vowed not to cut any corners in the race to develop a treatment for COVID-19.

On Tuesday (September 8) nine leading U.S. and European firms signed a pledge to maintain standards in testing.

Signatories include Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca.

The unusual move comes amid heated debate over how to speed access to new medicines.

Last month the head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said that the normal approving process could be bypassed.

That’s if officials are convinced the benefits outweigh the risks.

But the comments immediately prompted a call for caution from the World Health Organisation.

Meanwhile, Russia last month approved a new vaccine, though some Western experts criticised it for a lack of testing.

And in China the head of Sinovac Biotech said most of the firm’s employees had already taken an experimental shot.

Now polls have shown public concern over the safety of new medicines.

The pledge signatories say they want to allay those fears by sticking to the highest standards.

That means large scale tests, including control groups who don’t get the vaccine.

Pfizer’s German partner BioNTech said there needs to be at leas 95% certainty that any new drug is effective.

The list of signatories is completed by Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Moderna, Novavax and Sanofi.