“Upon further review, we’ve identified a number of applicants that had previously been included in a batch for approval that, based on a transcription error, should have been in fact in a batch for denial,” Collins told the CCC. He added, “It is unfortunate and we will absolutely be in touch with each of those applicants to identify this error that did occur.”

Collins said the CCC’s staff reviewed the applications and recommended that the commission deny the requests for priority review. He said the error happened when staff was compiling batches of applications for approval and separate batches for denial. The error was identified late last week, Collins said.

“The staff actually reviewed these certification applications and made the correct recommendations,” CCC Chairman Steven Hoffman said. “What happened is as each of the staff made recommendations we compiled a master list and recommendations from the staff that said deny ended up just getting put in the wrong column. But the actual analysis of the applications was done correctly.”

The CCC voted Tuesday to rescind its priority review approval for the 10 applicants and asked its staff to review them once more before returning to next week’s CCC meeting with fresh recommendations.

Based on the fact that the CCC staff initially recommended the applications be denied for not meeting the requirements for priority review, Hoffman said: “it’s likely they’re going to be denied.”