EU regulator backs Pfizer’s updated COVID vaccine for XBB.1.5 variant
Aug 30 (Reuters) – The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Wednesday its human medicines committee (CHMP) recommended authorizing Pfizer’s (PFE.N) updated COVID-19 vaccine targeting the dominant XBB.1.5 variant of Omicron.
Comirnaty, developed by the U.S. drugmaker and German partner BioNTech (22UAy.DE), is to be used for preventing COVID-19 in adults and children from 6 months of age.
The EMA also reiterated that adults and children from 5 years of age who require vaccination should have a single dose, irrespective of their COVID-19 vaccination history.
Vaccine makers have created versions of their shots aimed at the XBB.1.5 subvariant of the virus.
Recommendations made by the CHMP will have to be formally approved by the European Commission.
An approval will make it the third adapted vaccine developed by the companies to be authorized in the bloc.
Other Comirnaty adapted vaccines targeted Omicron Ba.4-5 and Omicron Ba.1 subvariants of Omicron.
Pfizer and BioNTech did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reporting by Eva Mathews and Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Source: Reuters
