The exact timeline for the vaccine becoming publicly available, if ultimately approved, was not immediately clear, but one company chief indicated that it could be as soon as next year.

RSV is a common respiratory virus that can cause those infected to experience mild, cold-like symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While most people can recover from RSV in a week or two, infants and older adults can be more severely impacted by the virus.

The results announced by Pfizer on Tuesday came from a clinical trial investigating the RSV vaccine when administered to pregnant participants in order to help protect their infants from the virus after birth. The vaccine appeared to be 81.8 percent effective in protecting infants against severe RSV illness from birth through the first 90 days of life, while there was also a “high efficacy” of 69.4 percent seen through the first six months of life, Pfizer said.

“We are thrilled by these data as this is the first-ever investigational vaccine shown to help protect newborns against severe RSV-related respiratory illness immediately at birth,” Dr. Annaliesa Anderson, senior vice president and chief scientific officer for Pfizer’s Vaccine Research & Development (R&D), said in a statement. “We look forward to working with the FDA and other regulatory agencies to bring this vaccine candidate to expectant mothers to help protect their infants against severe RSV during their most vulnerable first six months of life, which has the highest burden of RSV illness in infants.”

Pfizer said that it plans to submit an application for approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by the end of the year. The FDA in March designated Pfizer’s investigative RSV vaccine as a breakthrough therapy, which is meant to “expedite the development and review of drugs that are intended to treat a serious condition and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the drug may demonstrate substantial improvement over available therapy on a clinically significant endpoint.”

Pfizer also noted that the FDA granted Fast Track status to the vaccine in November 2018, another designation that is meant to facilitate development and expedite the review of drugs “to treat serious conditions and fill an unmet medical need.”

Pfizer told Newsweek in a statement that the FDA designations allow it to apply for Priority Review when it files its approval request, which gives the agency a shorter deadline for taking action on an application.

“For patients, it means they will potentially have access earlier as compared with the traditional process,” the statement added.

Dr. William Gruber, Pfizer’s senior vice president of vaccine clinical research and development, also told CNN that the breakthrough therapy designation “puts us in a very good position to essentially have something well in advance of next winter.”

“It will be up to them whether or not they can think of any other path that could allow this to come sooner,” he added.