COVID Vaccine Trials May Need Active Comparators Once Adequate Supply Reached, CBER’s Marks Says

US FDA’s biologics center director Peter Marks discusses future COVID-19 vaccine trials, post-market safety monitoring, and how FDA is juggling reviewing two emergency use authorization requests at once in an interview with Pink Sheet.

CBER's Peter Marks is interviewed in his basement for the FDA/CMS Summit 2020. (screenshot)
CBER Director Peter Marks speaks at the FDA-CMS Summit • Source: Informa's FDA-CMS Summit

The US Food and Drug Administration will likely want sponsors to pivot from placebo-controlled trials to studies with active comparators once there is adequate supply of highly efficacious COVID-19 vaccines, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Director Peter Marks said.

“It would not be ethical at that point,” Marks said in an interview at the FDA-CMS Summit on 7 December.

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