FDA plans to authorise Pfizer boosters for adults this week: Report

Regulators are set to clear extra doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine as soon as Thursday, after states began expanding eligibility on their own.

 

The Food and Drug Administration is aiming to authorise booster doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine for all adults as early as Thursday, a move that would expand the number of Americans eligible for additional shots by tens of millions, according to people familiar with the agency’s plans.

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s independent committee of vaccine experts has scheduled a meeting for Friday to discuss data on the booster dose’s efficacy and safety. If both FDA and CDC sign off this week, they will have acted strikingly quickly — a little more than a week after Pfizer asked for authorisation of boosters for everyone 18 and older. Under that scenario, any adult who received a second dose of the vaccine at least six months earlier would be officially eligible to get a booster.