By Mariam Sunny and Christy Santosh

LONDON: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that people six months and older should be updated on their vaccinations. covid-19 vaccine Over 100 individuals will be enrolled for the 2024-25 vaccination drive, irrespective of whether they have been vaccinated for the disease previously or not.

The agency’s recommendation Thursday matches those of its panel of outside experts, who voted unanimously to recommend the use of updated COVID-19 vaccines authorized or approved by the FDA in children six months and older.

This recommendation will apply as new vaccines become available. Modern, Novavax And Pfizer The CDC said the drug will become available later this year.

The US Food and Drug Administration earlier this month asked vaccine makers to update the new shots so they could target people at lower risk. KP.2 variant If possible, instead of the JN.1 lineage, which was previously attempted to target.

Moderna and Novavax have submitted their applications to the FDA to update their shots for the fall 2024 season targeting the JN.1 strain.

Novavax said it intends to make its updated vaccine available early in the year. Vaccination season upon receiving FDA AuthorizationHe said its vaccine showed broad cross-neutralizing antibodies against multiple variants, including KP2 and KP3.

Pfizer and Moderna make messenger RNA vaccines, which can be developed more quickly than Novavax’s protein-based vaccine.

The JN.1 variant was the most commonly detected strain in the United States earlier this year. Though it’s not as prevalent now, it’s estimated to account for 4.4% of cases in the two-week period ending June 22, according to CDC data.

It is estimated that the KP2 strain was responsible for about 20.8% of cases, while KP3, which is now becoming dominant, was at 33.1%.

Pfizer said it is in global discussions with regulators, including the FDA, to assess the composition of future Covid vaccine formulations.

Moderna said it would be ready with the updated shot in time for the autumn vaccination campaign, while Pfizer and partner BioNTech said they would be ready to supply theirs Updated vaccines immediately after approval.

Pfizer and Moderna said they were ready to supply vaccines targeting the JN.1 or KP.2 variants. (Reporting by Christy Santosh and Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)