Updated 9/15/21: Materials for the advisory committee meeting are now available online.

FDA to Hold Advisory Committee Meeting to Discuss Pfizer-BioNTech’s Application for COVID-19 Booster

Today [September 1], the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a virtual meeting of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee to discuss the matter of additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines and specifically to discuss the Pfizer-BioNTech supplemental Biologics License Application for administration of a third (“booster”) dose of Comirnaty (COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) in individuals 16 years of age and older.

The meeting will be held on Sept. 17, 2021, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. EST.

The FDA intends to make background material available to the public, including the meeting agenda and committee roster, no later than two business days before the meeting.

In general, advisory committees include a Chair, members with scientific, medical and public health expertise, and a consumer and industry representative. Additional members with specific expertise may be added for individual meetings as needed.

The FDA intends to livestream the VRBPAC meeting on the agency’s YouTube channel; the meeting will also be webcast from the FDA website.

“The administration recently announced a plan to prepare for additional COVID-19 vaccine doses, or ‘boosters,’ this fall, and a key part of that plan is FDA completing an independent evaluation and determination of the safety and effectiveness of these additional vaccine doses,” said Peter Marks, MD, PhD, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Research and Evaluation.

“The process for authorizing or approving the use of a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine involves each vaccine manufacturer submitting data pertaining to safety and effectiveness to the agency to support this use. The FDA is evaluating data submitted by Pfizer-BioNTech in a supplemental Biologics License Application for its COVID-19 vaccine and will discuss it with the agency’s advisory committee to inform our decision-making. Should the data received from other manufacturers raise unique questions that would benefit from the committee’s input, the agency intends to consider additional public discussions.”

“A transparent, thorough and objective review of the data by the FDA is critical so that the medical community and the public continue to have confidence in the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. The FDA will review the supplemental application as expeditiously as possible, while still doing so in a thorough and science-based manner,” Marks said.

This announcement was originally published by the Food and Drug Administration/National Institutes of Health on September 1, 2021.