A special US government advisory panel has recommended emergency use authorisation for Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, in a major step towards its widespread use in the country, worst-hit by the pandemic.
After an eight-hour public hearing on Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) voted 17 to 4 with 1 abstention to recommend the vaccine developed by American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech to combat the disease that has killed over 292,000 people in the US.
An emergency use authorisation (EUA) is short of a full approval. Pfizer would have to file a separate application for full FDA approval for its vaccine. Thursday’s vote does not mean the vaccine will be authorised immediately, US media reported.
“There is a clear benefit, and all we have on the other side is theoretical risks,” said committee member Paul Offit, a vaccine expert with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The vaccine’s potential benefits outweigh its risks, he said.