WASHINGTON — Pfizer Inc.’s vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus received endorsement from a key panel of U.S. advisers for its safety in people 60 and older, a key endorsement for the drugmaker’s potential product.
Members of the panel that advises the Food and Drug Administration voted 7-4 Tuesday that the data presented by the drugmaker show the safety of the vaccine developed to prevent RSV. The same panel will next vote on whether the data show the vaccine is effective. The FDA doesn’t have to follow the recommendations of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, but it usually does.
Pfizer has been vying with the UK’s GSK Plc over which drugmaker will become the first to reach the U.S. market with vaccines for the lung illness. GSK will face its own advisory committee hearing on Wednesday for what infectious disease specialists call the last big respiratory virus without a vaccine.
