What to expect from the FDA’s important COVID-19 vaccine meeting Thursday

An all-day regulatory meeting scheduled to take place Thursday is the next step toward the likely authorization of the first COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S.

The Food and Drug Administration this week plans to convene a meeting of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, which is made up of a group of independent medical experts, who will discuss the risks and benefits of BioNTech
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and Pfizer Inc.’s
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experimental COVID-19 vaccine before voting on whether the FDA should authorize the vaccine. The regulator isn’t required to follow the committee’s recommendations but often does.