A gathering of the US Meals and Drug Administration’s influenza vaccine advisory board set for March 13, 2025 has been canceled, in accordance with a number of media experiences, together with Reuters.
The assembly of the US Vaccine and Associated Organic Merchandise Advisory Committee is a part of an annual technique of figuring out which influenza virus strains might be focused by subsequent season’s flu vaccine.
An FDA spokesperson mentioned the company would make its suggestions to producers public in time for up to date vaccines to be out there for the 2025-26 influenza season. No cause was given for the cancellation.
through Reuters
The VRBPAC meets each March, permitting vaccine producers a 6-month manufacturing cycle to develop the flu vaccine in time for distribution in September, earlier than the beginning of flu season, Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the committee, instructed CNN on Thursday.
Offit mentioned he believes the FDA will conduct a knowledge evaluation by itself, with out of the recommendation of the committee, however he doesn’t anticipate results to the vaccine manufacturing. “I don’t assume there’s going to be a lot of an impression,” he mentioned in a CNN interview. “I don’t assume the general public ought to fear…the influenza vaccine might be any much less efficient or much less secure.”
Some specialists concern, nevertheless, this can impression improvement of subsequent season’s flu vaccine and threaten public well being.
Infectious Ailments Society of America president Tina Tan, MD, referred to as the cancellation “irresponsible.”
Cancelling a critically vital Meals and Drug Administration assembly that’s very important to the event of efficient flu vaccines for subsequent flu season is irresponsible, ignores science and reveals an absence of concern for the safety of the general public from this doubtlessly extreme illness. This resolution — and different federal efforts to undermine well-established science about vaccine security — places everybody in danger, particularly once we are presently experiencing the worst US flu season in additional than a decade.
Cancelling this assembly means vaccine makers might not have the very important info and time they should produce and distribute focused vaccines earlier than the subsequent flu season. If the FDA assembly is just not instantly rescheduled, many lives that may very well be saved by vaccination might be misplaced.
–Tina Tan, MD, FIDSA, FPIDS, FAAP — President, IDSA
In line with Reuters, the FDA cancellation follows a CDC vaccine advisory assembly that was postponed final week.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) had been scheduled to convene for 3 days in February, however was delayed to permit extra public touch upon the method, Reuters reported.
Learn extra at www.reuters.com
