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Almost Public: Interagency Meeting Replaces US FDA ‘25-’26 Flu Vaccine AdComm

 
• By Bridget Silverman

Only government staff participated in the meeting defining the next season’s influenza vaccine composition after the annual public FDA vaccines advisory committee meeting was cancelled.

The selection of influenza strains for the 2025-2026 vaccine took place out of public view. (Shutterstock)
Key Takeaways
  • The FDA replaced the cancelled Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meeting to determine influenza strains for 2025-2026 vaccines with a meeting of 15 staff from the Defense Department, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
  • The FDA released meeting slides and a summary after the session, but without the context or an open public hearing a typical adcomm would offer.
  • The interagency group agreed with the World Health Organization recommendation for 2025-2026 trivalent flu vaccines, which changes the influenza A/H3N2 strain from the 2024-2025 trivalent vaccine, but keeps the same influenza A/H1N1 and influenza B virus strains.

The US Food and Drug Administration recommended a composition for the 2025-2026 influenza vaccine on schedule, but after a stripped-down committee review consisting only of

The 13 March 2025 “interagency meeting” was the same day that the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee would have held an open meeting with an opportunity for public comment to select strains. The VRBPAC meeting was

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