"Well, they’ve got to be very careful with the FDA," Makary responded. "If you do something out of line with what they want you could offend them and the FDA is vindictive and they will hold up authorizations and approvals.”
The doctor was simply saying what anyone [including Merck] knows, the DC bureaucracy is drunk on its self-importance and power, and petty bureaucrats won't hesitate to throw up road blocks to any company that doesn't properly knowtow to them.
Than includes ones working on Covid treatments, as CYDY found out when the FDA did a public hit job on them.
So anyone seeking drug approvals has to be very careful.