Pfizer's bivalent booster vaccine approved for Aust adults

Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler has announced that the federal government has accepted a recommendation from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) on the use of the Pfizer COMIRNATY Bivalent Original/Omicron BA.1 vaccine as a third and fourth dose in people aged 18 years and older. It is the second bivalent vaccine approved for use in Australia.

ATAGI has found this next-generation vaccine triggers a modest improvement in the immune response against both strains; it can therefore be used as an alternative to any of the available mRNA COVID-19 vaccines (including the recently approved Moderna bivalent booster) for any booster dose in people aged 18 years or older. Butler said both this vaccine and the original vaccines provide significant protection from severe disease against Omicron subvariant infections, with ATAGI indicating no preference for bivalent mRNA vaccines over original mRNA vaccines.

The first doses of the bivalent vaccine have arrived in the country and are undergoing batch testing by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). Rollout is set to commence from 12 December.

A separate recommendation from ATAGI to make the paediatric version of the original Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine available for certain at-risk children aged six months to under five years has also been accepted. The TGA initially approved the Pfizer vaccine in at-risk infants back in September, but now ATAGI has agreed to make the vaccine available from mid-January 2023. As with Moderna’s paediatric vaccine, which is already available, the Pfizer vaccine is being restricted to those who are severely immunocompromised or who have other specific conditions that put them at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19.

Finally, ATAGI has recommended that a booster dose of the paediatric Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine may be given to children aged 5–11 years who are severely immunocompromised, have a disability with significant or complex health needs or have complex and/or multiple health conditions that increase the risk of severe COVID-19. This is in line with the Group’s recommendations for adolescents aged 12–15 years, which have been in place since June. ATAGI does not at this time recommend a booster dose for otherwise healthy children or adolescents who have already received two primary doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, claiming there is insufficient evidence of severe disease in their respective age groups.

Image credit: iStock.com/filadendron

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