An advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is due to meet later Tuesday to review the vaccine developed by Novavax Inc. with a vote expected to influence the agency in deciding whether the risks outweigh the benefits. The FDA said last week the company’s experimental two-dose vaccine could have a higher risk for myocarditis than what has been reported for the mRNA vaccines since they were authorized. The company countered by saying it believes “there is insufficient evidence to establish a causal relationship” between its COVID-19 vaccine candidate and instances of myocarditis and pericarditis. The vaccine has a 90% efficacy rate against mild to severe symptomatic COVID-19. The meeting comes as U.S. cases are averaging 98,867 cases a day, down 8% from two weeks ago, according to a New York Times tracker. The country is averaging 29,299 hospitalizations a day, up 15% from two weeks ago. The daily death toll has fallen to 266 on average, down 15% from two weeks ago. On a global basis, total cases are now above 532.4 million. Total deaths are above 6.3 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, with the U.S. still leading the way with 84.9 million cases and 1,008,857 deaths.
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