The European Medicines Agency today recommended updating the covid-19 vaccines for the 2024/2025 vaccination campaign to protect against the new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, JN.1.
The recommendation was made by the Emergency Situations Task Force (ETF) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) after consulting the World Health Organization (WHO), international partners and marketing authorization holders for covid-19 vaccines.
The working group also considered “a wide range of data, including data on the evolution of the virus and data from animal studies on the effects of candidate vaccines targeting JN.1,” the EMA said in a statement.
Evidence indicates that targeting JN.1 will help maintain vaccine efficacy as SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve.
“JN.1 differs from the XBB family targeted by the previous updated vaccines and has now overtaken the XBB variants to become the most widely circulating variant worldwide,” he points out.
Marketing authorization holders should now contact the EMA to discuss updates to their vaccines’ marketing authorizations.
“All marketing authorization holders are expected to update the composition of their authorized vaccines in line with this recommendation,” the EMA points out.
Companies that are currently developing new COVID-19 vaccines that do not target JN.1 are also encouraged to contact the EMA to discuss strategies for changing the composition of their vaccines.
The EU’s national authorities will ultimately decide on the vaccination campaigns for 2024 and 2025, taking into account the situation in their country.