A health worker prepares Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine FILE PHOTO

The Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday said Pfizer’s vaccine can be used as a booster shot once it was given full authorization.

The FDA director-general Eric Domingo said the US FDA has given Pfizer full authorization that it can be used commercially. But Pfizer-BioNTech must apply for full authorization in the PH-FDA before it can be available commercially.

Domingo said PH FDA has given its list of requirements for Pfizer’s application for full authorization. The vaccine currently has an emergency use authorization in the Philippines.

“Kapag ito ay naging commercially available na kasi nasa doktor na kung paano irereseta at gagamitin po yung gamot.”

The US FDA last week granted full approval to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine in a bid to encourage residents to get their jabs following increasing cases due to the highly transmissible Delta variant.