Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine will likely be fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration by Labor Day 2021, according to a new report.
The nationwide rise in COVID-19 cases driven by the highly transmissible delta strain has spurred the agency into action, sources told The New York Times. Federal health officials have been under growing pressure to fully approve the vaccine, the news outlet reported. Pfizer’s vaccine was the first of three authorized for emergency use during the pandemic in the United States, and the drugmaker was the first to apply to the FDA for full approval.
The director of the National Institutes of Health also has hinted at a likely end-of-summer approval for the drug. Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., said that moving past the emergency use designation could help build confidence among those wary of getting a shot, McKnight’s Long-Term Care News has reported.
“If anyone’s holding back now because they’re waiting for that full approval, I would say that’s not really a good reason to wait,” Collins told The Washington Post in July. “Delta is spreading. People are at risk. People are dying.”
Moderna also has applied to the FDA for full approval for its coronavirus vaccine.
