(Reuters) -The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday authorized a second dose of the so-called bivalent COVID-19 vaccines for people aged 65 years of age and older, at least four months after their first shot.
The agency also withdrew its emergency-use authorization for older messenger RNA vaccines as it aims to shift towards a simpler vaccination schedule with the use of newer Omicron-targeting shots.
It authorized the so-called bivalent COVID boosters in August that target the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants, along with the original strain of the coronavirus.The withdrawal of approval for Moderna Inc and Pfizer-BioNTech’s/ older vaccines, which target the original coronavirus strain, comes at a time when the FDA plans to shift to an annual COVID booster campaign with an updated strain, similar to the way Americans get their flu shots.
(Reporting by Leroy Leo in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
