Rome, 2 May – The emergency task force (ETF) of the EMA, the community regulatory agency, after consulting with the WHO, international regulatory authorities and MA holders of anti-Covid19 vaccines, expressed the opinion that the updating the antigenic composition of vaccines to counteract the JN.1 family of Omicron subvariants is adequate to ensure cross-reactivity against current dominant and emerging viral strains.
He gives news of it a note published by AIFA on its portalafter recalling that although the authorized vaccines against Covid19 remain effective in preventing severe disease and death caused by viral variants that have become dominant in the community more recently, protection against infection decreases with the passage of time and as the circulating virus evolves into variants antigenically more distant than the composition of the vaccine.
The national regulatory agency also recalls that studies have shown how adapting the contents of vaccines to circulating viruses improves protection against the disease. For these reasons, the composition of Covid 19 vaccines has been updated in the last 3 years.
Between December 2023 and January 2024, a new variant of Sars CoV 2, called JN.1, surpassed the previously circulating family of XBB variants globally. JN.1 belongs to the BA.2.86 family of the Omicron variant, and is antigenically distant from the XBB family and previously circulating variants.
