AdCom vote provides US FDA with ammo to OK third COVID-19 vaccine

Not surprisingly, given rather positive  briefing documents from US Food and Drug Administration staffers earlier this week, the agency’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee gave the thumbs up for COVID-19 vaccine Janssen to be approved for emergency use authorization (EUA) following deliberations on Friday.

The non-binding decision, which was adopted by a vote of 22 to 0 by the FDA’s AdCom, comes as the Biden administration works to ramp up the supply of vaccine doses and get Americans vaccinated as quickly as possible, as the US death toll from COVID-19 surpassed 500,000 in the past week.

The vote compares to a 17-4 vote for the first authorized COVID-19 vaccine, from Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and Germany’s BioNTech (Nasdaq: BNTX), and a 21-0 vote, with one abstention, for Moderna’s (Nasdaq: MRNA) vaccine.