The EMA points out that vaccination against COVID-19 could be annual and at the beginning of winter

HIPRA’s vaccine evaluation “could conclude very soon”

MADRID, 15 Feb. 2023 (Europa Press) –

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has pointed out that future vaccination campaigns against COVID-19 could be carried out “once a year and at the beginning of winter”.

This was highlighted this Wednesday at a press conference by the head of the EMA’s Biological Health Threat Strategy and Vaccines, Marco Cavaleri, who has advanced that the European regulatory body is analyzing with experts and international entities, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), “the criteria and process for updating vaccines against COVID-19”.

In January 2022, this same expert already expressed his doubts about the need to give booster doses “continuously” for fear of “oversaturating the immune system with repeated vaccinations.” “It would be better to start thinking about more widely spaced boosters that are synchronized with winter, like you do with the flu,” he proposed.

Regardless of what vaccination programs will be like in the coming years, Cavaleri has warned that COVID-19 “continues to pose a significant burden to health systems.”

“The low acceptance of booster doses among vulnerable groups worries Public Health,” he argued. For this reason, she has urged “the elderly, pregnant women and immunosuppressed patients who have not been revaccinated against COVID-19 with an adapted vaccine” to be vaccinated again.

As for the vaccine against COVID-19 from the Spanish company HIPRA, Cavaleri has advanced that its evaluation “advances”. “We hope to conclude it very soon”, he specified during his speech.

Meanwhile, it has reported that the EMA “is in contact” with the developers of other types of vaccines against COVID-19 that are administered through the nose, which could increase their effectiveness, since it is one of the main entry doors. of the virus to the body. “We are willing to discuss the data from the vaccines that have already been deployed in India and China,” she added.

The EMA is also evaluating a vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in the elderly. According to Cavaleri, the European body could give its approval to this vaccine “in the coming months.” “It is necessary to better protect vulnerable groups against respiratory viruses that could cause waves of illness in winter,” he justified.

Regarding persistent COVID-19, the EMA representative has indicated that they are working with researchers to “discuss the design of clinical studies and the specific results that can be measured” on this pathology.

Lastly, he stressed that the data obtained in the vaccination campaigns against monkeypox (mpox) show that “it is effective, especially after two doses.” At the same time, he has announced that “conversations are being held with the creators of other vaccines against smallpox and other viruses of the same type.”

Europa Press