A panel that advises the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is set to meet this month to consider whether to recommend booster shots of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.
The聽Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee will meet on Oct. 14 and Oct. 15 to consider whether to recommend Moderna and Johnson & Johnson boosters for certain groups.
Advisers will hear presentations on both days, including from both companies. Another presentation, from the National Institute of Health鈥檚 National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, will outline data on mixing and matching boosters, or using a different vaccine for the booster than that used for the initial regimen,聽the FDA said in a press release.
The administration typically takes up recommendations from its panel. The Biden administration announced last month it supported using boosters for everybody who has received a vaccine, regardless of their health status or underlying characteristics. However, the FDA only authorized Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine boosters in some populations after two top FDA officials announced their resignations, penning a paper on their way out that argued there was no evidence to support their use.
The authorization only applies to people who received Pfizer’s initial two-shot regimen. Mixing and matching boosters is not advised at this time.
Tension over boosters continued after the FDA agreed with its advisers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory board rejected a vote to recommend boosters for millions of people as young as 18, but was overruled by the agency’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky.
Moderna and Johnson & Johnson have said scientific data backs allowing more doses of their vaccines.
Moderna released partial results from a trial in mid-September it said showed that people benefit from increased protection against infection bestowed by a third dose of its shot even as the company said data showed little waning against hospitalization and death.
Johnson & Johnson said about a week later that data from a phase 3 clinical trial showed a second shot of its vaccine bolstered protection against symptomatic COVID-19.
Dr. Peter Marks, the director of the聽FDA鈥檚 Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, signaled anew ahead of the advisory committee meetings the FDA’s position on boosters.
“The available data make clear that protection against symptomatic COVID-19 in certain populations begins to decrease over time, so it鈥檚 important to evaluate the information on the use of booster doses in various populations,” he said.
Pezou : US Drug Regulator Advisers to Meet on Moderna, Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine Boosters