Meanwhile, the CEOs of Pfizer and BioNTech have been talking up how their vaccine will be ready for approval in mid/late October the last few days. It's honestly a little disconcerting.
Where are you seeing that? Pfizer's CEO's comments seems quite measured.
"Last week, he said the company could have results from its late-stage coronavirus vaccine trial as early as October after enrolling 23,000 volunteers."
"Pfizer and BioNTech are confident they can have a vaccine against the novel coronavirus ready for regulatory approval by the middle of October or early November."
This doesn't seem extreme to me. "ready for regulatory approval" just means they've submitted a complete package to the FDA.
However, this is a really stupid comment.
"It has an excellent profile and I consider this vaccine ... near perfect, and which has a near perfect profile,"
And at least according to FDA regulations, that statement violates a number of rules around the promotion of unapproved products.
If memory serves right, the CEOs were talking about it late August but from yesterday's announcement[0] :
"Nine drug companies issued a joint pledge on Tuesday that they would “stand with science” and not put forward a vaccine until it had been thoroughly vetted for safety and efficacy"
