> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.fdaweb.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# FDA: We Need 55 Years for Pfizer Vaccine Info Request
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/fda-we-need-55-years-for-pfizer-vaccine-info-request/
- Published: 2021-11-18T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T17:22:47.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Biologics, #legacy-id-D5150610

FDA has told a Texas federal court that it will need 55 years to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency (PHMPT) looking for data and information on the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. The conservative *Blaze News* Website [says](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theblaze.com/amp/fda-asks-federal-judge-for-55-years-to-complete-foia-request-for-vaccine-info-2655758556?ref=fdaweb.com) (contains links to the FDA court filing and the FOIA request) the agency said it would need to process 329,000 pages of documents and could only do 500 pages per month. “At that rate,” the story says, “the information requested will not be fully released until the year 2076.”

*Blaze* says the FOIA request was submitted in August by “a group of more than 30 international public health professionals, medical professionals, scientists and journalists that exist ‘solely to obtain and disseminate the data relied upon by FDA to license Covid-19 vaccines.’”

The group wants safety and effectiveness data; a protocol for a test or study; adverse reaction reports, product experience reports, consumer complaints, and other similar data and information; a list of all active ingredients and any inactive ingredients; an assay method or other analytical method; all correspondence and written summaries of oral discussions relating to the vaccine; all records showing Pfizer and BioNTech’s testing of a particular lot; and all records showing the testing of and action on a particular lot by FDA.

The group sued FDA in September after the agency denied its request to expedite the release of the records.

An attorney representing PHMPT said that while FDA conducted an intensive review of Pfizer’s documents in 108 days before authorizing the vaccine, it wants over 20,000 days to make the documents available to the public.

FDA argued that it is required by law to redact certain information that is exempt from the PHMPT request and that is a time-consuming process, often requiring government information specialists to go through each page line-by-line.

FDA also said that court precedent has determined that a rate of 500 pages per month is an efficient response to a large request such as this one. And it said the agency FOIA response office does not have enough funding or staff to answer the request at a quicker pace and that PHMPT could speed the process by narrowing the scope of the information requested.