RSV Vaccines Perform Well in Clinical Trials, Could Receive FDA Approval This Year
For decades no vaccine was available to fight respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which hospitalizes 60,000-100,000 Americans aged 65 and older, annually. The virus also kills 6,000-14,000 older adults in the US every year. Finally, new tools to prevent these devastating outcomes are on the horizon. Moderna announced its vaccine demonstrated strong safety and effectiveness in late stage clinicals trials. The mRNA vaccine prevented two or more symptoms in 83.7% of people aged 60 and older. The most common side effects were fatigue, injection-site pain and headache. In October of 2022, GSK reported that its vaccine prevented disease in 82.6% of trial participants. In December of 2022, Pfizer reported its vaccine to be 66.7% effective against at least two symptoms of infection. Public health experts say the FDA could approve one or more of the vaccines later this year. In addition Sanofi has developed a monoclonal antibody to prevent RSV in infants. The preventative medication, called nirsevimab, was 74.5 effective at staving off disease from the virus. Nirsevimab is currently undergoing review by the FDA.