Unanimous CDA AdCom vote to provisionally recommend Merck's Vaxneuvance for infants

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) unanimously voted to include Vaxneuvance (pneumococcal 15-valent conjugate vaccine) as a recommended option for vaccination in infants and children, including routine use in children under two years of age, US pharma giant Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK) announced yesterday.

Specifically, the ACIP voted to recommend that Vaxneuvance may be used as an option to the currently available 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) for children aged under 19 years according to currently recommended PCV13 dosing and schedules. Additionally, the ACIP unanimously voted to include Vaxneuvance in the Vaccines for Children program.

These provisional recommendations will be reviewed by the director of the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services, and final recommendations will become official when published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).