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COVID-19 Vaccine: Key FDA Panel Supports Updated Annual Shots

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• A key FDA advisory panel voted to use the same formulation for all COVID-19 vaccinations.
• This may help streamline and clarify COVID-19 vaccination recommendations.
• Before this change goes into effect, the FDA must sign off on the committee’s recommendation, which the agency is likely to do.

The Food and Drug Administration’s independent vaccine advisory committeevoted unanimouslyon Thursday in favor of having all COVID-19 vaccines in the United States use the same formulation as the two-strain updated boosters.

This change would make vaccination less confusing to both patients and healthcare workers, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) said.

The committee voted 21-to-0 to direct vaccine makers Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Novavax to update the primary series of their vaccines — the initial doses that people receive — to match the updated bivalent booster doses which target both the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and a newer Omicron strain.

The original strain is no longer circulating, but Omicron variants related to the one targeted by the updated bivalent boosterscontinue to spread.

Before this change goes into effect, the FDA must sign off on the committee’s recommendation, which the agency is likely to do.