An expert committee convoked by the US Food and Drug Administration have finally given a green signal to the Pfizer-BioNTech ’Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use’ on Thursday after a heavy voting process. This became significant to pave a path for the makers to allow the candidate available in general public soon.
The final voting tally was found to be 17 in favor, four against and one dismissed, which included even outsiders apart from FDA advisor panel named Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC). The committee was ordained to throw light on “whether the totality of scientific evidence can be considered to decide if Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine outweigh its risk for use in individuals 16 years of age and older?”. And majority provided satisfactory answers based on trial data.
The voting was done by the independent experts and researchers, including infectious disease specialists, biostatisticians and other scientists and is anticipated to follow the recommendation in the near future.
USFDA advisory panels give non-binding suggestions, with the final decision on authorisation to be made by the USFDA. Pfizer, which is ahead of the contenders got its vaccine already approved in the UK, Bahrain and Canada. The firm had also applied for emergency use approval of the vaccine in India.