Forget the original coronavirus vaccine. Your next booster will tackle the ‘Gryphon’ family of Omicron variants – By Lauran Neegaard, Mike Stobbe, Erin Prater and The Associated Press (Fortune) / June 16, 2023
The COVID-19 vaccines are on track for a big recipe change this fall.
Today’s vaccines still contain the original coronavirus strain, the one that started the pandemic — even though that was long ago supplanted by mutated versions as the virus rapidly evolves.
Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration’s scientific advisers said the next round of shots in the U.S. should only include protection against the newest variants that are now dominant worldwide — a branch of the omicron family tree named XBB.
The committee didn’t vote to recommend which XBB subvariants should be targeted by updated boosters, though Pfizer told panelists it could have an XBB.1.5 booster ready as soon as July, and an XBB.1.16 booster in August. Novavax said it was prepared to offer an XBB.1.5 vaccine sometime this fall, and Moderna made a similar statement, Endpoint News reported. XBB.1.5 and XBB.1.16 were estimated to be the first and second most common COVID variants in the U.S. as of June 10, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CONTINUE > https://fortune.com/well/2023/06/16/covid-vaccine-booster-variant-omicron-gryphon-fda/
