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# Panel Recommends Omicron-based Covid Booster Vaccines
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/panel-recommends-omicron-based-covid-booster-vaccines/
- Published: 2022-06-28T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T17:50:20.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Biologics, #legacy-id-D5152191

FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee 6/28 voted 19 to 2 to recommend that the SARS-CoV-2 strain composition of Covid-19 vaccine boosters should be modified to include an Omicron variant component for use this fall and winter. This was a follow-up meeting to a 4/6 panel deliberation that discussed how the primary Covid-19 vaccinations and booster shots have decreased effectiveness against the Omicron variants and waning effectiveness over time.

During the 6/28 meeting, FDA officials predicted another late-year Covid infection wave as people remain indoors again during the colder months, and they said a decision must be made in early July for the vaccines to be available in October.

Both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have studied newer vaccines that are based on an earlier Omicron variant. “The current epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2, the evidence of waning immunity elicited by current Covid-19 vaccines, and the available immunogenicity data generated from a limited number of variant-specific vaccine candidates suggest that an updated vaccine composition may provide added benefit against currently circulating virus variants,” the agency said in a [briefing document](https://www.fda.gov/media/159452/download?ref=fdaweb.com) released in advance of the meeting.

The panel deliberation discussed whether the Omicron variant component should target the original BA.1 variant, or the newer BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants. However, FDA’s only question that was voted on did not identify specifically the Omicron variant companies should target when modifying their boosters. Presumably, FDA will decide this in the coming days.