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When it comes to authorizing COVID-19 vaccines, members of FDA's advisory committee and the U.K.'s counterpart often have undisclosed conflicts of interest.
Panelists for these advisory committees are only required to share conflicts of interest from the last 12 months, and when they do disclose these relationships, the committees do not always consider them significant enough to disclose to the public.
An investigation in
The BMJby American journalist Paul Thacker, who is currently based in Spain, found examples where experts had disclosed potential conflicts -- such as publication ties, grant receipts, and patents -- to their respective committees. However, the article noted that according to the minutes of the FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) and the U.K.'s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) meetings, most committee experts registered no conflicts of interest as of late-to-mid December 2020.