Email Trove From US FDA Shows Peter Marks As Champion For Plasma Authorization

The emergency use authorization for convalescent plasma in August 2020 on weak data from an expanded access program has largely been viewed as a politically charged decision by the Trump administration. But newly revealed emails from the run up to the decision indicate Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Director Peter Marks backed the plan.

FDA’s authorization of convalescent plasma has been one of the agency’s most controversial decisions during COVID-19 • Source: Nielsen Hobbs for Informa| Alamy, FDA images

Newly available internal emails from the US Food and Drug Administration reveal that senior career scientists may have played a larger role in pushing through the emergency use authorization for convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19 patients than was widely believed at the time.

The August 2020 EUA was made public in a dramatic White House press conference featuring then President Donald Trump, his...

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