Health Canada has approved the updated COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech this week, making it the third vaccine formulation to receive authorization this month.
The approval of Comirnaty follows the recent approvals of Moderna’s updated Spikevax mRNA vaccine and Novavax’s enhanced protein-based vaccine, Nuvaxovid.
Pfizer has announced that the Comirnaty vaccine will be available as a single dose for adults and children aged five and older, regardless of their prior COVID-19 vaccination history. However, children under five will need to receive the vaccine in three doses if they have not completed a primary vaccination course for COVID-19.
Health Canada instructed provinces to dispose of existing inventories of last year’s COVID-19 vaccines three weeks ago. The agency stated that it was reviewing new vaccine submissions from Pfizer, Moderna, and Novavax on an expedited basis, with the expectation of authorizing the vaccines in time for upcoming fall campaigns.
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The timing of vaccination campaigns will be determined by each province and territory, with Anna Maddison, a spokesperson for the Public Health Agency of Canada, stating that the vaccine supply is expected to last for several months.
“Canada has secured sufficient supply of COVID-19 vaccines to meet provincial and territorial demand requirements for fall and winter 2024 vaccination campaigns,” Maddison mentioned in an email to The Epoch Times.
Pfizer and Moderna have tailored their latest vaccines to target the KP.2 subvariant, while Novavax’s vaccine is designed to address the JN.1 subvariant. KP.2 is a sublineage of the JN.1 strain.
While Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are approved for individuals aged six months and older, the Novavax vaccine is recommended for individuals aged 12 and above. The product monograph for Nuvaxovid indicates that the vaccine has not yet been evaluated for safety and efficacy in children under 12 years of age.
This report includes contributions from The Canadian Press.
