{"id":28432,"date":"2024-06-14T03:54:01","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T08:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=28432"},"modified":"2024-06-14T03:54:10","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T08:54:10","slug":"fda-advises-covid-vaccine-makers-to-target-kp-2-for-fall-shots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=28432","title":{"rendered":"FDA advises Covid vaccine makers to target KP.2 for fall shots"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday<\/a> it had advised drugmakers to update the Covid vaccines to target the KP.2 strain, a descendant of the highly contagious JN.1 variant that began circulating widely in the U.S. this winter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The announcement came just over a week after an FDA advisory panel voted unanimously to recommend that the Covid vaccines for the fall be updated to target the JN.1 variant<\/a> or one of its descendants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the vote, there was a disagreement between panel members and Dr. Peter Marks, the agency\u2019s top vaccine regulator, about which strain the agency should choose. Most panel members expressed a preference for\u2002JN.1<\/a>, while Marks preferred selecting a newer strain, such as KP.2<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are paying an incredibly high premium for mRNA vaccines to be able to have the freshest vaccines,” Marks said, comparing the shots to buying milk from the store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the committee meeting, the FDA said that on June 6 it initially advised the drugmakers to\u2002target the JN.1 variant<\/a>. However, the agency has continued to monitor the circulating strains, and “based on the most current available data, along with the recent rise in Covid-19 cases in areas of the country, the agency has further determined that the preferred JN.1-lineage” for the updated vaccines is the KP.2 strain, “if feasible,” the FDA said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JN.1 has largely fallen out of circulation in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>. As of Saturday, KP.2 accounts for 22.5% of new Covid cases in the U.S. KP.3, a sister variant, accounts for 25% of new cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FDA\u2019s decision will allow drugmakers to begin producing and distributing the shots, which are expected to be used as part of a fall Covid vaccination campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three drugmakers are producing Covid vaccines: Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax. Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines are mRNA-based, while Novavax’s is protein-based. Because protein-based vaccines take much longer to manufacture, Novavax has indicated it won’t be able to make a KP.2 vaccine in time for the fall. Instead, it is expected to distribute a JN.1 vaccine, which it had already been producing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the third time the vaccines have been updated to target the circulating strains. The process of selecting the next round of vaccines is falling into a routine, similar to how the annual flu shot is updated, with vaccine experts selecting the strain in the spring for a vaccination campaign in the fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the advisory committee meeting, the drugmakers presented data showing that a JN.1 vaccine should generate higher levels of antibodies against circulating strains of the virus compared to the current vaccine, which targets XBB.1.5, a subvariant that\u2019s no longer in circulation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The committee did not make a recommendation on who should get the updated vaccine. That will be left up to the CDC, which is holding its own advisory committee meeting later this month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it had advised drugmakers to update the Covid vaccines to target the KP.2 strain, a descendant of the highly contagious JN.1 variant that began circulating widely in the U.S. this winter.  The announcement came just over a week after an FDA advisory panel voted unanimously to recommend that the Covid vaccines […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":28433,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5784],"tags":[3600,3848,3043,29044,1504,29043],"class_list":["post-28432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-covid-19-vaccine","tag-drugmakers","tag-fda","tag-kp-2-strain","tag-updates","tag-vaccine-strain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28434,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28432\/revisions\/28434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}