Trump calls for speeding development of coronavirus vaccine

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday called on the nation’s largest pharmaceutical companies to “accelerate” their efforts to produce a vaccine to combat the fast spreading coronavirus.

Federal health officials have cautioned that the earliest a vaccine will be ready for mass production is in a year, but Trump in a White House meeting with 10 of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical companies, suggested the federal regulators could play a role in helping to fast track the typically rigid approval process.

“We’re working very hard to expedite the longer process of developing a vaccine,” Trump told reporters. “We’re also moving with maximum speed to develop therapies so that we can help people recover as quickly as possible … it’s likely that therapies will be available before a vaccine is actually ready and we will seek to bring all effective treatments to the market as soon as possible.”

Trump’s meeting was previously scheduled to discuss bipartisan legislation to reduce prescription drug prices, but the focus of the meeting turned to the coronavirus as the number of cases and fatalities in the U.S. continued to grow. As of Monday evening there were nearly 100 detected cases of the virus in the U.S, and six deaths resulting from the respiratory disease, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The president told reporters he was considering additional travel restrictions “from certain countries where they're having more of a breakout." He did not specify which countries he was referring to.

 In the past week, the administration has issued travel warnings, urging Americans against traveling to South Korea and parts of Italy that have seen an outbreak of cases. The administration has also expended existing restrictions on travelers from Iran, banning entry to the U.S. from those who have visited Iran in the past two weeks.

Vice President Mike Pence, when asked to clarify the potential for new travel restrictions during a news briefing after the meeting, did not indicate which countries the administration was eyeing.

“We’re going to follow the facts and listen to the experts,” said Pence, who is leading the federal government’s response to the virus.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, speaking at the White House meeting, told the executives on hand a key point of discussion moving forward was how the administration could “challenge some of those normal pharma timelines that can be a little slow and bureaucratic.” Trump has long railed against the strict testing timelines in the FDA has in place to ensure the safety of drugs, calling them “burdensome.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has repeatedly cautioned that a working vaccine will likely not emerge and be mass produced for another 12 to 18 months. Speaking at the meeting, Fauci, reasserted that it would at least take a year to deploy any new vaccine, after Trump told reporters he heard a vaccine could be ready in three to four months.

Executives for the companies on hand noted that several were already working together to quickly develop a possible vaccine.

Pence is expected to meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday as congressional leaders have been negotiating an emergency spending bill that would direct billions of dollars to combating the virus.