FDA Advisors Recommend Targeting JN.1 Strain in Fall COVID Vaccine Prescription

WASHINGTON – Administration advisers said Wednesday it’s time to update the recipe for COVID-19 vaccines Americans will receive in the fall — targeting an ever-evolving version of the coronavirus called JN.1.

While COVID-19 cases are currently low, more spikes are inevitable and manufacturers need time to prepare shots for the fall. Moderna, Pfizer and Novavax have tested updated doses to match the JN.1 variant that became dominant last winter.

But just a few months later, numerous offshoots of JN.1 are already on the rise, prompting Moderna and Pfizer to also test a slightly different vaccine formula, targeting what is now the most common subtype in the US, called KP. two.

This was a difficult choice, as the Food and Drug Administration decides the final recipe. FDA advisers voted Wednesday that the next vaccine should come from the JN.1 “lineage,” or family. Then the FDA’s vaccine chief, Dr. Peter Marks, challenged them to be more specific about exactly which variant to target, wondering if KP.2 would be a better option.

“If this evolves further in the fall, will we regret not being a little closer?” Marks said, comparing the choice to how he always chooses the “freshest” milk with the longest shelf life at the supermarket.

But KP.2 is not likely to still be the biggest threat in the fall, the panel responded. Having to make the choice now, they preferred the JN.1 variant itself rather than trying to predict which of its descendants would be most likely to increase in the coming months.

“Having a vaccine that is the trunk of the tree and not the branches makes sense to me” because it would offer some cross-protection to other subvariants that emerge, said a consultant, Dr. Melinda Wharton of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. .

Health officials have told Americans to expect an annual update on COVID-19 vaccines, just as they receive a new flu shot each fall, designed to best match the strains currently spreading. Although almost everyone has been infected or received at least one round of vaccination against COVID-19, the coronavirus continues to produce new strains that can evade previous immunity – and protection also wanes over time.

COVID-19 vaccine from last fall it targeted a completely different section of the coronavirus family tree, and CDC data shows that only about 22.5% of adults and 14% of children have received it. But while public concern about COVID-19 has waned, it remains more deadly than the flu, according to a recent analysis of Veterans Affairs hospitalizations from last winter.

Moderna, Pfizer and Novavax have said they could have supplies of JN.1-specific shots ready by the fall, although they have not provided quantities. As it has in previous years, the CDC will make recommendations about who should get updated shots and when.

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