Consumers looking for an alternative to messageRNA (mRNA) Covid-19 vaccines will soon have another option to protect themselves against rising infections and hospitalizations this fall.
The FDA on Tuesday authorized use of Novavax’s updated Covid vaccine for patients aged 12+, weeks after the agency greenlit reformulated boosters from Moderna and Pfizer. Novavax’s shot is expected to be available in the “coming days,” according to the company.
The update means consumers have another Covid-19 vaccine option that “meets the FDA’s standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality needed to support emergency use authorization,” Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s biologics evaluation and research center, said in a statement. “As we head into the fall season and transition into 2024, we strongly encourage those who are eligible to consider receiving an updated Covid-19 vaccine to provide better protection against currently circulating variants.”
Previous Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance from earlier this year had limited the Novavax vaccine to patients who either didn’t have a primary series of Covid vaccinations or had a primary series and a single booster, and were also “unwilling to receive an mRNA vaccine.”
With the restrictions lifted, any patient may elect to receive the updated Novavax vaccine as long as it’s been more than two months since their last Covid vaccination.
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In mRNA vaccines, such as those from Pfizer and Moderna, lab-created messenger RNA “teach” cells to develop proteins that elicit immune responses and create antibodies that protect against Covid-19, according to the CDC.
Novavax’s jab, however, uses a “traditional” protein-based technology, making it an option for those who may be skeptical of mRNA vaccines or have an allergic reaction to them, according to the American Medical Association (AMA).
The universal recommendation that all eligible patients get vaccinated ahead of the fall and winter virus season which the CDC issued for updated Covid shots in September also applies to the reformulated Novavax vaccine, Sandra Fryhofer, AMA’s liaison to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, told the AMA last month.
The commercial price for the updated vaccine will be approximately $130 a dose, Reuters reported. Private insurance and Medicaid-based plans may cover the cost of the vaccine, despite the end of the public health emergency on May 11, Healthcare Brew previously reported.
Novavax executives told investors in an earnings call this February that it had “substantial doubt” about the company’s ability to operate through 2023. However, company shares rose 11% after the FDA authorized the jab for emergency use, Barron’s reported.