A second coronavirus vaccine is one step closer to being delivered, after a federal panel of outside experts on Thursday endorsed a coronavirus vaccine from Moderna and recommended the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) move forward with emergency authorization.
The panel voted 20-0, with one abstention, that the safety and efficacy of the vaccine outweigh the risks for use in individuals age 18 and older.
Based on the track taken by the already-approved vaccine manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech, the FDA could grant emergency use authorization for the Moderna vaccine as soon as Friday.
The agency earlier this week confirmed that the two shot dose of the vaccine was safe and 94 percent effective at preventing illness. The vaccine also showed evidence of preventing severe COVID-19, in addition to symptomatic infection.
DEVELOPING