Key Points
- Pfizer and Moderna have submitted applications for two new COVID-19 vaccines.
- The new vaccines would target the JN.1 variant.
- Experts say they would provide sufficient protection for the KP.2 and KP.3 variants.
Australia could roll out two new COVID-19 vaccines if approved, although they will not target the KP.2 and KP.3 subvariants that make up the majority of the country’s cases.
Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) records show that Pfizer and Moderna recently requested approval of new COVID-19 vaccines.
The new vaccines would target the JN.1 variant which belongs to a subset of variants called “FLiRT”.
Experts say JN.1 is closely related to KP.2 and KP.3 — – so that new vaccines provide adequate protection.
Catherine Bennett, chair of epidemiology at Deakin University, said: “These variants are all part of the wider FLiRT group which are closely related enough to expect some cross-protection against vaccination or infection between variants. »
Adrian Esterman, chair of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of South Australia, said the new vaccines would work “extremely well” against the strains currently circulating in Australia.
What do we know about the new COVID-19 vaccines?
The TGA is assessing Moderna’s application for a vaccine for people aged 12 and over, as well as Pfizer’s vaccine for people aged six months and over.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has asked vaccine makers to target KP.2 variants.
But equivalent bodies in the UK and Europe have chosen to research vaccines targeting the JN.1 variants.
Esterman said the European Medicines Agency (EMA) concluded that the difference in immunogenicity between the JN.1 and KP.2 vaccines remains uncertain and of minor importance.
Paul Griffin, an infectious disease doctor and clinical microbiologist at the University of Queensland, said the JN.1 vaccines would be a “significant improvement” over the specific XBB.1.5 vaccines, currently available in Australia.
“Even though the virus has continued to evolve, this in no way indicates that these vaccines are not effective. It just means that with each iteration, the effectiveness decreases to some extent,” he said .
Australia is not currently manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines and has five agreements for their supply from overseas.
When will the new COVID-19 vaccines be rolled out?
It is unclear if or when the vaccines will be approved.
But the process takes “several months,” Griffin said.
“This process is actually taking longer than I think at the moment, and we can never give a precise timeline,” he said.
“We must examine [the vaccine-approval process] and ways in which we can speed up this process, otherwise we will continually fall behind,” Griffin said.
Earlier this year, a request for Novovax’s XBB.1.5 vaccine
Has Australia passed a peak in COVID-19 infections?
Bennett said Australia had just emerged from a peak in COVID-19 infections.
“We have reached our winter peak now and we do not know which variant will be responsible for the next wave predicted at the end of the year, although at the moment it seems likely that it is part of the same FLiRT lineages given the late summer wave only which is currently reaching its peak in the northern hemisphere.
