US FDA Panel advisors back authorizing Pfizer COVID vaccine

A panel of advisors to the U.S Food and Drug Administration on Thursday voted to endorse the emergency use of Pfizer Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine, making a way for the agency to authorize the shot.

The FDA is widely expected to authorize the vaccine, developed with German partner BioNTech SE, for emergency use in the United States within days. Distribution and inoculations are expected to begin almost immediately thereafter.

The committee voted 17-4 that the known benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risks of taking the shot for individuals 16 and older, with 1 member of the panel abstaining.

Pfizer had asked that the two-dose vaccine be approved for use in people aged 16 to 85. Several advisory panel members discussed whether 16 and 17-year-olds should be included in the recommendation because the risk to these individuals is low, and the evidence in the trial was scant.

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In the end, they voted on the question as put them by the FDA, which included 16 to 17-year-olds.

"The final decision about whether to authorize the vaccine for emergency use will be made by FDA’s career officials," the agency said in a statement.

The panel also discussed concerns raised by two reports of serious allergic reactions among vaccine recipients in Britain, and what to advise pregnant women, who were excluded in the study. Women of childbearing age comprise a large proportion of healthcare workers, who will be among those first in line to get the vaccine.

The FDA said during the panel meeting that there was not enough data to support or contradict use of the vaccine in pregnant women. The agency recommends that they make the decision on their own with advice from their doctors.

The advisers also spent a large portion of the meeting discussing Pfizer's plan to give volunteers who received a placebo in its trial the option to get the vaccine when they become eligible for it under recommendations set by state and local health officials.

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Documents prepared by the FDA ahead of the meeting did not point out any new safety or efficacy issues, raising optimism that the United States would soon follow the UK and Canada authorizing the vaccine.

Pfizer and BioNTech last month said a two-dose regimen of the vaccine was 95% effective in preventing illness from COVID-19, and detailed data released in the agency's documents showed the vaccine began showing some protection even before volunteers received a second dose.

The documents also disclosed data on safety including cases of Bell's palsy among volunteers in the placebo and vaccine groups, though it said the cases in the trial occurred at the same rate as in the general population. Other reactions included fever, fatigue, and chills.

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