(Reuters) – A panel of independent advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will meet on Sunday to review data on Pfizer Inc and partner BioNTech SE’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate, the health agency’s meeting agenda showed on Tuesday.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will vote https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/acip/meetings/downloads/agenda-archive/agenda-2020-12-11.pdf on whether to recommend the vaccine for public distribution and who should receive it, based on data available on the its effectiveness and safety.
Sunday’s meeting will follow a meeting by outside experts to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Dec. 10, who will discuss whether to authorize Pfizer’s shot for emergency use.
Pfizer last month said its vaccine’s two-dose regimen was 95% effective against COVID-19 and had no major safety issues. The drugmaker is set to present this data to the ACIP on Friday.
The FDA released documents on Tuesday saying Pfizer vaccine’s efficacy and safety data met its expectations for the authorization.
The CDC sets the U.S. adult and childhood immunization schedules based on recommendations from ACIP.
The panel’s COVID-19 vaccine recommendations will include specifics about which age groups should receive the vaccine, the number of doses needed, gap between doses and precautions.
The committee last week voted for healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities to receive the first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in the United States.
A meeting of advisers to the FDA is scheduled for Dec. 17 to discuss Moderna Inc’s vaccine candidate, which is also being reviewed for emergency use in the United States.
(Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
