THURSDAY, June 6, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Wednesday recommended updating the formula for COVID vaccines ahead of a fall campaign that will encourage Americans to get the latest shots.
The unanimous vote recommends that vaccine makers tailor the next vaccine to target the JN.1 variant, which dominated infections in the United States last winter, the reported. However, JN.
1 has been overtaken by known as KP.2 and KP.3 this spring.
The FDA is expected to formally recommend a new variant target for vaccine makers in the coming weeks, the reported. , who oversees the FDA's vaccine division, urged the committee to consider encouraging the mRNA vaccine makers to focus on the latest versions of the virus, and not the JN.1 variant, the reported.
“We always say we shouldn’t be chasing strains, but we’re paying an incredibly high premium for mRNA vaccines to be able to have the freshest vaccines,” he said, referring to the technology used by Moderna and Pfizer. “If this evolves further in the fall, will we regret not having been a little bit closer?” Marks asked. But , a senior vaccines official at the U.
S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that aiming at JN.1 was more appropriate because it was “further up on the tree” in the evolution of the coronavirus, possibly allowing the vaccines to better cover future mutations in the virus, the reported.
The panel's decision mirrors guidance from a World Healt.
