US FDA clears Moderna, J&J boosters; okays brand different from earlier shot

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday authorized booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, and said Americans can choose a different shot than their original inoculation as a booster.

“The availability of these authorized boosters is important for continued protection against COVID-19 disease,” acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a statement. She noted that data suggests vaccine effectiveness may wane over time in some fully vaccinated populations.

The decision paves the way for millions more people in the United States to get the additional protection with the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus causing breakthrough infections among some who are fully vaccinated.

The agency previously authorized boosters of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine developed with German partner BioNTech SE at least six months after the first round of shots to increase protection for people age 65 and older, those at risk of severe disease and those who are exposed to the virus through their work.

Recommendations

Last week, an advisory panel to the FDA voted to recommend a third round of shots of the Moderna vaccine for the same groups. Moderna’s booster is half the strength of the shots administered for the company’s initial series of inoculations.

The panel also recommended a second shot of the J&J vaccine for all recipients of the one-dose inoculation at least two months after receiving their first.

FDA officials had suggested last week that they were considering lowering the recommended age for booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to as young as 40, based on data from Israel, where Pfizer booster shots have already been administered broadly.

They did not lower the age range for the shots on Wednesday but said that they were assessing the benefits and risks of broader use of boosters and plan to update the public in the coming weeks.

The FDA and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were under some pressure to authorize the additional shots after the White House announced plans in August for a widespread booster campaign.

Mixing vaccines

The advisory panel meeting included a presentation of data on mixing vaccines from a US National Institutes of Health study in which 458 participants received some combination of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and J&J shots.

The data showed that people who initially got J&J’s COVID-19 vaccine had a stronger immune response when boosted with either the Pfizer or Moderna shot, and that “mixing and matching” booster shots of different types were safe in adults.

Many countries, including the United Kingdom, have backed mix-and-match strategies for the widely used AstraZeneca vaccine, which is not authorized in the United States but is based on similar viral vector technology as J&J’s vaccine.