WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that pharmacists can draw additional doses from vials of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, potentially expanding the country’s supply by millions of doses as the Trump administration negotiates with Pfizer to speed up the next round of vaccine deliveries.

The government’s existing supply of the first authorized vaccine can be stretched further after pharmacists began to notice that vials contain more than the expected five doses.

The FDA is in touch with Pfizer about how to handle this issue, the agency said. In the meantime, regulators say those extra doses from a single vial can be used.

“At this time, given the public health emergency, FDA is advising that it is acceptable to use every full dose obtainable – the sixth, or possibly even a seventh – from each vial, pending resolution of the issue,” an agency spokesman said, confirming news first reported by Politico.

That means the supply of remaining vaccine could be up to 40 percent greater, though the drugmaker cautions that it’s uncertain how many extra doses are available. The FDA and Pfizer also caution that any leftover vaccine from different vials that is smaller than a full dose should not be mixed together , which experts say risks cross-contamination.

“The amount of vaccine remaining in the multidose vial after removal of 5 doses can vary, depending on the type of needles and syringes used,” Sharon Castillo, a spokeswoman for Pfizer, said in a statement.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is also getting a boost from the White House this week with Vice President Mike Pence expected to receive a vaccination Friday, live on camera. Second lady Karen Pence and Surgeon General Jerome Adams are expected to be vaccinated as well.

Meanwhile federal health officials said Wednesday they are in talks with Pfizer to purchase tens of millions of additional doses this spring after the drug company said the United States probably would have to wait until summer.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said he is “very optimistic” about negotiations in which federal officials are trying to help Pfizer ramp up production to meet the government’s demand for the second quarter of 2021.

Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said the potential for millions of extra doses is “incredibly good news,” especially in light of the dispute over additional Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.

“If vaccine is as good as its been in the trials, it’s a silver lining of the fact that we didn’t get as much of the Pfizer vaccine as we originally could have,” she said.

Federal officials have insisted they have enough doses with other vaccines likely to receive emergency authorization, including the Moderna vaccine, which is expected to be cleared by regulators in the coming days.

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