Results:
21 for, 0 against, 1 abstention.
I was interested if this was going to get an EUA given we already have full approval of the other vaccines. But the FDA's logic is Novavax would offer a first-line non-mRNA alternative given J&J has been relegated to a second-line option over the rare risk of Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome.
The Novavax vaccine is a protein subunit vaccine with an adjuvant. This isn't a new vaccine type, both the Hepatitis B vaccine and HPV vaccine are protein subunit vaccines.
Also re: Omicron, Novavax only has immunogenicity data. Not efficacy data right now. But the immunogenicity data suggests it should be effective for Omicron. And if the other vaccines are any indication that is likely to be true.
This might be a useful booster vaccine for the future. Also there are people that find the mRNA vaccines "new" or "different" that might get vaccinated with something they are more comfortable with.
I'm curious to see what the Omicron specific vaccine data is like. At the end of the month the FDA will decide about updating the vaccines to the Omicron specific strains or not.
Seems to be we are in a trend of Omicron sub-variants. So will be interesting. Though Omicron itself emerged out of nowhere too when we were getting used to Delta, so it is less straightforward than it appears.
The CDC's ACIP is meeting on June 17-18, so we should see this vaccine become available shortly after that.
