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FDA approves additional quadrivalent influenza vaccine
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The FDA today approved an additional quadrivalent intramuscular influenza vaccine for those aged at least 3 years, according to a GlaxoSmithKline press release.
The four-strain influenza vaccine (FluLaval, GlaxoSmithKline) is the second vaccine from the company approved by the FDA. The first-ever intramuscular quadrivalent vaccine (Fluarix Quadrivalent, GlaxoSmithKline) was approved in December. This will be the first influenza season that quadrivalent vaccines are available.
“Since the late 1980s, public health authorities have known that four primary influenza strains circulate each year causing the majority of influenza illness, but the influenza vaccines used for the past 30 years only covered against three strains,” Leonard Friedland, MD, vice president, director of scientific affairs and public health, GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines, North America, said in the release. “With this limitation, global influenza experts have had to make a difficult determination around the strains each season to cover, and in six of the past 11 influenza seasons (2001-2012), one of the predominant strains was not included in the season’s influenza vaccines. Trivalent vaccines do reduce influenza risk even in years when a vaccine strain-mismatch occurs, though quadrivalent influenza vaccines are the important next step in broadening strain coverage.”