(Reuters) – A panel of outside advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to endorse emergency use of Pfizer Inc’s coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for the agency to authorize the shot for a nation that has lost more than 285,000 lives to COVID-19.
The committee voted 17-4 in favor that the known benefits of the vaccine, developed by Pfizer with Germany’s BioNTech, outweighed the risks in adults 16 years and older of taking the shot, with one member of the panel abstaining.
(Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler)
