An advisory panel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday endorsed a COVID-19 vaccine developed by an American biotechnology company, Moderna.
This comes exactly seven days after the panel, known as the FDA Advisory Committee, recommended the now approved Pfizer’s vaccine for emergency use authorisation.
It paves the way for the FDA to also authorise the Modena vaccine for urgent distribution to stop a virus that is spreading like wildfire across the country.
Reports say 21 members of the independent panel of experts voted yes, and one panellist abstained.
As was Pfizer’s case, FDA officials are expected to approve the panel’s recommendation as soon as Friday.
The U.S. government has said it is ready to immediately distribute 5.9 million doses of the Moderna vaccine to no fewer than 3,000 sites nationwide.
The first phase of inoculations with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine began on Monday across the country.
