According to The New York Times, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is aiming to give full approval to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine by early September.
The two-dose vaccine, developed by Pfizer in collaboration with German company BioNTech, has been approved for emergency use since last November.
It is one of three COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the United States, along with the two-dose vaccine from Moderna and the single-dose version manufactured by Johnson & Johnson.
The paper says the FDA is accelerating its usual deadline to give full approval to the vaccine as the United States is hit by a new wave of infections and hospitalizations caused primarily by the Delta variant.
The recent increase in new infections is mainly in people who have not been vaccinated. The paper cites recent polls by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health care research group, which found that three out of every 10 unvaccinated people in the United States say they would get the vaccine if it were fully approved.
The increase in COVID-19 cases has prompted a growing number of public and private entities to seek mandatory vaccinations for all their employees, including an order issued last week by US President Joe Biden to all government employees federal.
Pfizer applied for full COVID-19 vaccine authorization on May 7, and Moderna on June 1. Johnson & Johnson said it plans to apply for full approval later this year.
