US FDA approves updated COVID vaccines for 2026-27 season

Moderna

27/08/2026 22:41

Aug 27 (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Moderna, Novavax-Sanofi and Pfizer-BioNTech's updated COVID vaccines, the companies said on Thursday, after an advisory panel recommended that the shots should target the dominant XFG variant.
Four COVID shots had been approved for use in the United States: Moderna's MRNA.O mNEXSPIKE and Spikevax, Pfizer-BioNTech's PFE.N, 22UAy.DE Comirnaty — all three mRNA-based vaccines — and Novavax-Sanofi's NVAX.O, SASY.PA protein-based shot that takes longer to manufacture.
All manufacturers previously said they could make the updated shot in time for the 2026-27 immunization season.
In May, eight of the committee's nine experts voted in favor of targeting the XFG variant for the 2026-27 campaign.
For the 2025-26 season, the FDA had recommended ⁠COVID shots target LP.8.1 — a subvariant of the JN.1 strain.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's COVID dashboard, new data on strains is currently unavailable due to low sequencing submissions. 

 (Reporting by Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet Das)
 ((Christy.Santhosh@thomsonreuters.com;))