FDA Panel Backs New COVID Vaccines Aimed at Dominant Strain

Voto a favor del nuevo vacuna

The FDA’s vaccine advisors voted 8 to 0, with one abstention, in favor of a monovalent XFG vaccine for COVID-19 shots for the 2026-2027 season.

Discusión sobre la variante BA.3.2

The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) also discussed the need to target the long-simmering BA.3.2 variant, also known as “cicada,” though most expressed confidence that targeting XFG was the right way to go.

Opinión de expertos

“The XFG variant is the most common variant in the U.S. right now, and looking at the other JN.1 variants that may be coming up, I still think that the BA.3.2 variant is not as common. I think we have to keep surveillance very vigilant though,” said Anna Durbin, MD, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

Recomendaciones de la OMS

Stanley Perlman, MD, PhD, of the University of Iowa in Iowa City, noted that the World Health Organization recommended the LP.8.1 strain for next year’s vaccines, which “would have been fine,” he said. The currently available vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer target LP.8.1.

Intercambiabilidad de vacunas

Hana El Sahly, MD, of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, abstained from voting because she said all the data shown indicated that the XFG vaccine “is interchangeable with LP.8.1 in terms of the breadth of the response and the height of the response.”

Oportunidades perdidas

“We might be missing the opportunity to expand the breadth of response to the NB.1.8.1 and BA.3.2 variants that are increasing, especially in children who are engines of transmission of respiratory viruses,” El Sahly added.

Selección de cepas para vacunas

The BA.3.2 discussion also expanded into another key question that came up during the day, as to whether annually in late spring was the right timing for COVID shot strain selection, given that it has both late summer/early fall and winter surges.

Necesidad de vigilancia epidemiológica

The researchers also raised concerns about not having sufficient epidemiologic and genomic surveillance data to make the best decisions about strain selection.

Datos de efectividad de la vacuna

During the meeting, all three vaccine manufacturers — Moderna, Pfizer, and Sanofi — presented immunogenicity data showing XFG vaccines provided high levels of neutralizing antibodies against JN.1 family variants, including NB.1.8.1, but they have more limited neutralization of BA.3.2 lineages.

Análisis de la CDC

The meeting opened with presentations from the CDC on the epidemiology and viral genomics of COVID-19 and vaccine effectiveness (VE) data.

Hospitalizaciones por COVID-19

Natalie Thornburg, PhD, chief of the laboratory branch within NCIRD’s COVID division, presented epidemiologic data showing that hospitalization rates for 2025-2026 were lower than all previous years, and those rates have been decreasing each year.

Descargo de responsabilidad

Este artículo es solo para fines informativos y no debe usarse como sustituto del consejo médico profesional. Siempre consulte con su médico u otro proveedor de salud calificado con respecto a cualquier pregunta que pueda tener sobre una condición médica.

Fuente: https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19vaccine/121483