Major vaccine developments put new shots on market in 2023

Major vaccine developments in 2023 included the approvals of the first two vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus, the first chikungunya vaccine, a new vaccine against malaria, and a move to new monovalent COVID-19 vaccines.

Below are some of the vaccine-related stories you may have missed this year.

FDA approves first vaccine against RSV

In May, the FDA approved the world’s first RSV vaccine following years of failed attempts by scientists to develop one. The vaccine, GSK’s Arexvy, is approved in the United States to prevent lower respiratory tract disease caused by RSV in adults aged 60 years or older. Read more.

CDC advisors recommend older adults consider RSV vaccination

The CDC recommended that use of the two RSV vaccines be based on “shared clinical decision-making,” rather than made routine for all older adults. Read more.

Older adults first in line for RSV vaccines, but will they roll up their sleeves?

The two approvals meant that, for the first time ever, older adults had an opportunity to get vaccinated against RSV. We checked in with experts about the two vaccine approvals, the reasons for the CDC’s muted recommendation and what it all means for older patients in the U.S. Read more.

‘Now we have two’: WHO recommends second malaria vaccine

In October, WHO recommended the widespread use of a second vaccine for the prevention of malaria in children. Read more.

Malaria vaccines: A first for parasitic diseases

After 50 years of research, there are two malaria vaccines have been recommended for use against the mosquito-borne disease. We checked in with some experts to get their feedback on the vaccines and where the world stands in its fight against malaria. Read more.

FDA approves world’s first chikungunya vaccine

Valneva’s Ixchiq is the first vaccine for chikungunya, which is spread by bites from infected Aedes mosquitoes. A CDC committee is expected to vote on its recommendation for use in February 2024. Read more.

CDC recommends new pentavalent meningococcal vaccine

A new pentavalent meningococcal vaccine covers the five most common meningococcal serogroups — A, B, C, W-135 and Y — and reduces the number of doses needed for full vaccination to two shots given 6 months apart. Read more.

TB vaccine candidate gets up to $550 million in funding for phase 3 trial

Wellcome and the Bill & Melinda Gates announced in June that they would provide $550 million for a phase 3 trial of the investigational tuberculosis vaccine M72/AS01_E, which has been in development since the early 2000s. Read more.

Gonorrhea vaccine trial nears full enrollment

At IDWeek, Jodie A. Dionne, MD, MSPH, associate professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told us that an NIH-funded trial testing a meningococcal B vaccine against gonorrhea had nearly reached it enrollment goal. Watch video.

Researchers infect women with Zika virus to help find vaccine

Researchers infected women with the Zika virus to determine viral strains that allow for safe human challenge trials for a vaccine in the absence of an ongoing outbreak. Read more.

FDA will review self-administered flu vaccine for approval

AstraZeneca’s FluMist is already approved for administration by a health care professional, but the company announced in October that the FDA accepted a supplemental biologics license application for the vaccine based on data from a usability study. Read more.

CDC recommends updated monovalent COVID-19 vaccines

The CDC recommended that COVID-19 vaccines for the 2023-2024 respiratory season be monovalent and target only omicron XBB subvariants of SARS-CoV-2. Read more.