FDA, CDC Halt Use of Chikungunya Vaccine in Adults 60+ After Two Deaths Reported
On May 9, 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended a temporary pause in the use of Ixchiq, a live virus vaccine designed to prevent chikungunya virus infection, in adults aged 60 years and older. The recommendation follows reports of serious post-marketing adverse […]
ACIP Reports on First “Do-It-Yourself at Home” Nasal Flu Shot
In September 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) licensed the first of its kind live attenuated nasal spray influenza vaccine to be administered at home during the 2024-2025 “flu season.” Adults up to the 49 years of age are eligible to self-administer the FluMist Home vaccine or give it to their children aged […]
Flu Shot Recipients “More Likely” to Get Influenza Than Unvaccinated
The American Medical Association (AMA) cites that the influenza vaccine is estimated to be 40-60 percent effective at preventing serious infections or death from the influenza virus that affects up to 40 million Americans every year. However, for the 2024-2025 flu “season” the influenza vaccine not only missed the mark on effectiveness, but is linked […]
CDC’s ACIP Forms Workgroup to Back New Lyme Disease Vaccine and Monoclonal Antibody Products
At an Apr.15-16, 2025 meeting of the U.S. Centers for Disease and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), it was announced that a workgroup had been formed to further development of a new vaccine for Lyme disease. The first session of the new group will take place in May with a presentation scheduled […]
HHS Halts Funding for Development of Next-Generation COVID Biologics
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has stopped U.S. government funding for the development of next-generation COVID-19 biologics by two companies, GeoVax, Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia and CastleVax, Inc. of New York. The project had been funded by Project NextGen, a Biden administration initiative under the U.S. Center for the Biomedical Advanced […]
Fast-Tracked DNA-Based Therapeutic Cancer Vaccine to Be Given to Melanoma Patients in U.K.
Patients in England with advanced skin melanoma are receiving a “revolutionary” new therapeutic cancer vaccine in a National Health Service (NHS) clinical trial that is being used to fast-track the biological to licensure. The vaccine, iSCIB1+—also known as ImmunoBody—is a DNA-based treatment designed to boost the immune system’s ability to target and remember melanoma cells.1 […]