(Reuters) -The U.S. Food and Drug Administration confirmed on Thursday that a meeting of its independent advisory panel to discuss the composition of this year’s flu vaccine had been canceled and that the regulator would instead make recommendations later.
The statement confirms a report by Reuters that the U.S. FDA’s Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meeting, which was scheduled to take place on March 13, had been canceled.
An FDA spokesperson said the agency would make its recommendations to manufacturers public in time for updated vaccines to be available for the 2025-26 influenza season. No reason was given for the cancellation.
This is the second disruption to vaccine-related advisory panels since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the helm at the Department of Health and Human Services earlier this month.
The health department had postponed a meeting of advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines last week to allow for more public comment.
(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru and Michael Erman in New York; Editing by Pooja Desai)
