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On Thursday, a committee of FDA experts on vaccine development, infectious diseases and medical statistics met to assess whether the Pfizer / Biontech vaccine should be urgently approved for use in the United States.
Late Thursday night, approval finally came in and the vaccine is ready to be implemented. Formal approval comes Sunday from infection control authorities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but the practical work of preparing all the logistics around vaccination already begins now.
A near unanimous majority on the committee ended up voting in favor of approval of the vaccine. The approval is for guidance only, but an approval from an expert committee is generally considered the last step in an approval process, meaning that the FDA will most likely give a final clear signal shortly.
Once the vaccine has received final approval, 2.9 million vaccines are expected to ship in the first 24 hours.
Drastic increase in deaths
The approval comes at the time of the Earl for the United States, which has recently seen a dramatic increase in the number of infections and deaths. More than 215,000 new infections were recorded in the United States on Wednesday, as well as 3,124 new deaths related to coronary heart disease, both the highest figures since the start of the pandemic.
The large increase in cases of infection and death is mainly due to the increase in travel in connection with the holidays and Thanksgiving.
A total of 15.9 million cases of infection have been recorded in the United States since the start of the pandemic and nearly 298,000 deaths. The United States is the country in the world with by far the highest number of coronary cases, as well as deaths related to coronary heart disease.
The Pfizer / Biontech vaccine has already been approved in Canada and the UK. The FDA is known to be very careful about the drugs they bring to market, so it is not surprising that the United States has taken longer to approve the vaccine.
Next week, the FDA will decide on a request for urgent approval of the corona vaccine from the pharmaceutical company Moderna.(Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and / or our suppliers. We would like you to share our cases via a link, which leads directly to our pages. Copying or other use of all or part of the content may only be done with written permission or as permitted by law. For more terms, see here.
