FDA outlines plans for updated COVID-19 vaccines by October
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A top vaccine official at the FDA said on Tuesday that the agency would decide whether to change the composition of the current generation of COVID-19 shots by early July to prepare for a booster campaign with updated shots in October.
Dr. Peter Marks, the director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, outlined the plan in a meeting where a panel of outside experts of the agency discussed the variant selection for the redesigned vaccines.

"The better the match of the vaccines to the circulating strain we believe may correspond to improve vaccine effectiveness, and potentially to a better durability of protection," Dr. Marks said.
Vaccine makers Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), Moderna (MRNA) and Novavax (NVAX) were scheduled to make presentations at Tuesday's meeting of the FDAâs Vaccines and Related Biologics Advisory Committee.
Earlier in the day, estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicated that two new subvariants of the Omicron, BA.4 and BA.5 had become dominant in the U.S.
However, Pfizer (PFE)/BioNTech (BNTX) and Moderna (MRNA) have previously said that their updated vaccine candidates were found to have a lower antibody response against the newer subvariants compared to the BA.1.