CEOs pledge safety for coronavirus vaccines

By The Associated Press undefined
NEW YORK — Top executives of nine drugmakers likely to produce the first vaccines against the new coronavirus are promising they’ll be safe and effective.
The drugmakers’ chief executives say they’ll maintain the highest ethical and scientific standards in testing and manufacturing their vaccines. They also say they’ll make the well-being of those getting vaccinated their top priority.
The move is meant to boost public confidence. The announcement comes amid concerns the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will be under political pressure to approve a vaccine before tests to prove it is safe and effective are finished.
The pledge was signed by the CEOs of American drugmakers Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Moderna, Novavax and Pfizer, and European companies AstraZeneca, BioNTech, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi. BioNTech has partnered with Pfizer on one of the vaccines now in the final round of human testing.