FDA vaccine advisers vote unanimously in favor of updated Covid-19 shot for fall
Jen Christensen
By Jen Christensen, CNN
4 minute read
Updated 6:15 PM EDT, Wed June 5, 2024
Another new version of the Covid-19 vaccine will probably be coming this fall.
The US Food and Drug Administration’s committee of independent advisers voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend that the agency tell vaccine manufacturers to update the Covid-19 shots so they will be more effective against the JN.1 lineage of the coronavirus.
The committee voted on the question, “For the 2024-2025 Formula of COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S., does the committee recommend a monovalent JN.1-lineage vaccine composition?” All 16 of the advisers voted “yes.”
The decision now goes to the full FDA. If the agency agrees with its advisory committee, the new shot will be a monovalent vaccine, offering protection against one coronavirus variant. Some previous vaccines have been bivalent, meaning they were formulated to protect against two variants.
There are a few virus variants in circulation now, but they are relatively similar.
JN.1 and its descendants KP.2 and KP.3 are the versions of the virus that are most common in the US right now, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The FDA told the advisory committee Wednesday that studies have shown that currently available Covid-19 vaccines appear to be less effective against the variants that are now in circulation.
When manufacturers updated their vaccines last year to better match the variants that were in circulation then, it seemed to offer better protection. “Match does matter somewhat,” said Dr. Jerry Weir, director of the Division of Viral Products in the Office of Vaccines Research and Review at the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
“JN.1 has continued to evolve, and it makes it somewhat difficult to pick the particular specific strain to be used” this year, he told the committee. Because of manufacturing timelines, experts have to make predictions now if they want a new vaccine for fall. This is what the FDA’s committee has done for the past couple of years, and “I think it’s worked pretty well,” Weir said.
Covid-19 cases are relatively low right now. Only 3% to 4% of people who are getting tested are positive for the virus, said Dr. Natalie Thornburg, acting chief of the Laboratory Branch of the Coronavirus and Other Respiratory Viruses Division of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC. By comparison, at the peak of the Omicron surge in late 2021, test positivity rates were at 30%.
Hospitalization rates are also the lowest they have been since March 2020, Thornburg said.
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https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/05/health/fda-vaccine-advisers-covid-shot/index.html
