After clearing the first step toward full authorization for its modified booster, Pfizer is preparing to ship out its supply within 24 hours once the CDC gives the final OK, according to an NBC Nightly News report.
"We have doses ready, virtually immediately. So within 24 hours, trucks will leave the [Kalamazoo, Mich.,] facility," Mike McDermott, Pfizer's chief global supply officer, told NBC. "We are ready to go whenever the approval comes down."
Both Pfizer and Moderna nabbed the FDA's authorization Aug. 31, and it's been a close race between the two vaccine manufacturers after federal regulators asked for updated vaccines with better protection against the quickly mutating coronavirus.
Within two months, both companies have sprinted so fast that human trials to test each vaccine candidate's efficacy were pushed to the back, but Mr. McDermott told NBC human trials are now "underway."
The CDC will meet Sept. 1 and Sept. 2 to discuss each company's booster, meaning the tweaked, omicron-targeted vials could travel across the U.S. over Labor Day weekend and be ready early next week.