FDA says COVID-19 boosters should be updated to combat two omicron subvariants

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday told COVID-19 vaccine makers that plan to update their boosters to add a BA.4 and BA.5 spike protein component to the new shots that are in development. These “bivalent” boosters should equally target the two subvariants of omicron as well as the original strain of the virus and are expected to be rolled out to Americans in the fall or winter. Earlier this week, the FDA’s advisory committee on vaccines voted 19-2 that the COVID-19 boosters need to be modified to better combat omicron and its subvariants. The BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants now make up more than half of U.S. cases. The FDA said the primary series of shots will not be updated at this time. Moderna Inc., BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc. , and Novavax Inc. said this week that they plan to modify their COVID-19 boosters. Johnson & Johnson has no plans to modify its COVID-19 shot.

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