Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration on May 22 recommended the agency direct COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers to update the strain their shots target.
The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee unanimously voted to advise the regulator to have vaccines updated to target a single strain, one of the JN.1 subvariants.
The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines currently contain formulations for the KP.2 strain, while Novavax’s vaccine targets the JN.1 variant.
Those versions of the vaccines have been available since 2024, when they were cleared without trial data.
Moderna, Pfizer, and Novavax representatives told panel members before the vote that COVID-19 is still a problem and that immunological testing in humans has shown their vaccines can provide protection to recipients, including against LP.8.1, a JN.1 subvariant….