The quadrivalent version of the Fluarix influenza vaccine has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the second quadrivalent seasonal influenza vaccine approved by the agency.
The FDA approved Fluarix Quadrivalent vaccine Dec. 14 for vaccination against seasonal influenza in people aged 3 years and older. Quadrivalent seasonal influenza vaccines contain two influenza A and two influenza B strains, instead of trivalent seasonal influenza vaccines’ two A strains and one B strain.
The newly approved quadrivalent vaccine contains two strains of type A influenza (A/H1N1 and A/H3N2) and two type B strains, a Yamagata lineage strain and a Victoria lineage strain.
This is second quadrivalent influenza vaccine to be approved by the agency. In February, the FDA approved a quadrivalent version of the FluMist influenza vaccine, the intranasal influenza vaccine manufactured by MedImmune, in people aged 2-49 years.
The Fluarix Quadrivalent vaccine will be available in time for the 2013-2014 influenza season, manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline said in a statement Dec. 17. GSK also plans to fulfill orders for the trivalent version of Fluarix, because health care providers typically order influenza vaccine about a year before the next influenza season.
Every year, public health officials have had the difficult task of choosing which B strain to include in the annual seasonal influenza vaccine, based on the different B strains circulating worldwide. The ability to include the two B lineage strains should increase the likelihood that the vaccine will protect people from the influenza B strains that circulate during the influenza season.
The Fluarix Quadrivalent vaccine has not been approved in any country other than the United States, according to GSK.
More information on the two quadrivalent influenza vaccines approved to date is available here.