WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration has approved updated COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Novavax-Sanofi for the 2026-27 immunization season, with the shots designed to target the XFG variant, the companies announced Thursday.
The updated vaccines follow a recommendation from an FDA advisory committee earlier this year. In May, eight of the committee’s nine members voted to select XFG as the strain for the upcoming vaccine campaign.
The approved vaccines include Moderna’s mNEXSPIKE and Spikevax, Pfizer-BioNTech’s Comirnaty and Novavax-Sanofi’s protein-based COVID-19 vaccine.
Moderna’s and Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccines use mRNA technology, while Novavax-Sanofi’s vaccine uses a protein-based approach.
The three manufacturers had previously said they expected their updated vaccines to be available for the 2026-27 season.
The XFG variant, also known as Stratus, has been spreading in the United States and has contributed to an increase in COVID-19 cases during the summer.
Dr. Magdalena Sobieszczyk, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, said XFG emerged in Southeast Asia early this year before reaching the United States in the spring.
She attributed the recent increase in cases to the variant’s transmissibility, increased travel, low vaccine uptake and people returning to school and regular routines.
For the 2025-26 season, the FDA recommended vaccines targeting LP.8.1, a subvariant of the JN.1 strain.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said current variant data remains limited because of low sequencing submissions.
NewYork-Presbyterian recommends vaccination, handwashing and mask use when appropriate as measures people can take to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.