U.S. Pharmacist Vaccine Update

December 2020

Review Tracks FDA Vaccine-Approval Process Over Last Decade
Speedy approval of a COVID-19 vaccine by the FDA will be somewhat of an outlier from the typical, according to a new study. An evaluation of all new vaccines approved over the last decade suggests they required an average of about 8 years of clinical development and were based on evidence from a median of seven clinical trials. Here is more information.

Unlike Some Vaccines, RZV Shows High Effectiveness in Frail Recipients
Vaccines against influenza and pneumococcal disease generally are less effective in older or frail individuals, but that did not turn out to be the case with the recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV), according to a new study. Find out how effective RZV was in recipients who were frail and/or had multiple comorbidities in an additional analysis of previous studies.

HPV Vaccine Generally Found Safe in Males as Well as Females
Numerous safety studies have looked at the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in females, but little information was available for males, according to a new report. A new analysis of adverse events found similar reports for both sexes, although a few issues—syncope, loss of consciousness and falls—were determined to be a bit more likely in boys and men. Here are more details.

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