World Health Organization releases recommendations for next season’s flu vaccine ingredients

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday released recommendations for the composition of influenza vaccines for the 2024-2025 season in the Northern Hemisphere.

The announcement was made at a briefing following a four-day meeting on influenza vaccine ingredients. The conference is held twice a year, one for the Southern Hemisphere and one for the Northern Hemisphere.

WHO organizes these consultations with expert advisory groups gathered at WHO collaborating centers and WHO critical regulatory laboratories to analyze influenza virus surveillance data generated by the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System.

National vaccine regulators and pharmaceutical companies use the published recommendations to develop, produce and license next season’s flu vaccines.

The World Health Organization assures that due to the constantly evolving nature of viruses, including those that spread and infect humans, regular updates of the viruses contained in influenza vaccines are necessary for the vaccine to be effective.

Specifically, WHO recommends that the trivalent egg vaccine used in the 2022-2023 influenza season in the northern hemisphere contains a virus similar to A/Victoria/4897/2022 (H1N1)pdm09; similar to A/Thailand/8/2022 (H3N2) viruses; and viruses similar to B/Austria/1359417/2021 (B/Victoria lineage).

As such, it is recommended that cell culture- or recombinant-based vaccines contain viruses similar to A/Wisconsin/67/2022 (H1N1)pdm09; viruses similar to A/Massachusetts/18/2022 (H3N2); and viruses similar to A/Massachusetts/18/2022 (H3N2); B/Austria/1359417/2021 (B/Victoria lineage) similar viruses.

Finally, a quadrivalent vaccine based on oocytes or cell cultures or recombinants for the 2024-2025 northern hemisphere influenza season, recommended by the World Health Organization to contain viruses similar to B/Phuket/3073/2013 (lineage B/Yamagata) As ingredient B/Yamagata lineage.