RSV, flu vaccine coadministration safe for older adults, study shows
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Key takeaways:
- RSVpreF and seasonal inactivated influenza vaccines can be safely coadministered to older adults.
- Immune responses for both vaccines met prespecified immunogenicity endpoints for noninferiority.
When given together, Pfizer’s respiratory syncytial virus vaccine and the seasonal influenza vaccine generated robust immune responses and were well tolerated among older adults when coadministered, data from a recent study showed.
“RSV and influenza are both typically seasonal diseases, peaking during autumn and winter months. Coadministration of these two seasonal vaccines could reduce health care provider visits and facilitate delivery and uptake of these important vaccines to high-risk groups, such as older adults,” James Baber, MB, ChB, MPH, Pfizer’s senior director of vaccine clinical research, told Healio.
“Therefore, we conducted this study in adults 65 years and older to assess the safety and immune responses of [Pfizer’s RSV vaccine] and an adjuvanted influenza vaccine given at the same time compared with administration of each vaccine alone,” Baber said.
According to the study, patients in Australia were randomly assigned 1:1 to receive both Pfizer’s RSV vaccine (RSVpreF) and seasonal inactivated influenza vaccine (SIIV), or just SIIIV or RSVpreF administered alone. The researchers assessed for safety and tolerability and collected data on reactogenicity and adverse events.
In total, 1,399 patients were randomly assigned to receive vaccinations. Overall, the study showed that local reactions and systemic events were mostly mild or moderate in severity when RSVpreF was given either with SIIV or alone, with no vaccine-related serious adverse events being reported.
According to the study, the most common local reaction was injection site pain, which was reported in 11.4% to 12.4% of patients after receiving RSVpreF, whereas the most commonly reported systemic events were fatigue, which was reported in 30% of participants who received RSVpreF and SIIV, 27.1% of patients who received placebo and SIIV, 19.1% of patients who received RSVpreF alone and 17.6% who received placebo alone.
The study also showed that immune responses to both Pfizer’s RSV vaccine and the seasonal influenza vaccine were noninferior when the vaccines were given at the same time compared with when the vaccines were given 1 month apart.
Specifically, study data showed that geometric mean ratios among the two major cocirculating antigenic subgroups (RSV-A and RSV-B) were 0.86 for RSV-A and 0.85 for RSV-B neutralizing titers at 1 month after RSVpreF administration and 0.77 to 0.9 for strain-specific hemagglutination inhibition assay titers at 1 month after SIIV. According to the study, all comparisons achieved the prespecified 1.5-fold noninferiority margin.
“Overall, these results are supportive that RSVpreF and influenza vaccine can be given at the same time in older adults to help protect against these two important respiratory pathogens in this vulnerable population.”
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