The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to authorize Americans to receive a different brand of a covid booster vaccine than the one they initially took, according to sources cited by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. The agency, which can make the announcement this week, will not recommend any brand over another. It is expected that in the next few days the health entities will also give the green light to the booster doses of Moderna and Johnson & Johnson – only that of Pfizer -BioNTech- has been authorized and they will expand the groups that may receive an additional puncture.
The results presented last Friday by the National Institutes of Health on a study of “mix and match” of brands of the vaccine against covid-19 were the impetus to assess the future regulations, local media have reported. The research, presented to a committee of FDA experts, revealed that Johnson & Johnson single-dose recipients who received a Moderna booster increased their antibody levels 76-fold in 15 days, compared to a four-fold increase. in which they injected an additional dose of Johnson & Johnson.
The study concluded that an injection of Pfizer-BioNTech also raises the antibody levels of Johnson & Johnson receptors more than Johnson & Johnson, albeit with less potency than Moderna. The experts emphasized that the new evidence is supported by monitoring small groups of volunteers in the short term.
The FDA is scheduled to announce Wednesday night that additional doses of Moderna and Johnson & Johnson will be available. According to him Times, the permission to mix the brands could arrive during that same day. The regulator authorized a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine a month ago for those over 65, people at high risk of serious illness and workers highly exposed to contracting the virus.
The United States health authorities also have on the agenda to expand the groups that may receive an additional puncture. An advisory committee from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will discuss the issue Thursday, and then the agency will make recommendations. Recipients of the Pfizer booster vaccine must wait six months after receiving the second dose. It is believed that the regulator will establish the same waiting period for Moderna, while for Johnson & Johnson it would only be two months.
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