Two FDA vaccine officials to step down after Covid clearances

Two key vaccine officials are preparing to step down from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which raced to clear Covid shots to fight the pandemic and is now considering President Joe Biden’s booster plan.

Marion Gruber, head of the regulator’s Office of Vaccines Research and Review, plans to retire on Oct. 31 and Philip Krause, deputy director for the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, will be leaving the following month, according to an email to staff that was viewed by Bloomberg.  U.S. health officials have been working to evaluate Covid vaccines and treatments at top speed, with shots from Moderna Inc., Johnson & Johnson and the partnership of Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE cleared in record time.