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An engineer works in the general laboratory during a media tour of a new factory built to produce a COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine
WANG ZHAO/AFP/Getty Images
A briefing document published today by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration makes it clear that President Trump won’t be able to push through a Covid-19 vaccine before November’s election.
The FDA posted the 38-page briefing on its website, ahead of an Oct. 22 meeting of the agency’s outside scientific advisors on development and authorization of Covid vaccines. Inside, the agency reports that it has advised vaccine developers not to apply for an emergency use authorization until they’ve followed-up on clinical trial participants for an average of two months after the last shot.
A two month follow-up would make it late November for the vaccine being tested by
Pfizer
(ticker: PFE) and
BioNTech
(BNTX), writes Raymond James analyst Steven Seedhouse in a Tuesday