A U.S. advisory panel yesterday urged the approval for two new vaccines designed to boost immunity against whooping cough.
The panel said the vaccines, GlaxoSmithKline’s Boostrix and Sanofi-Aventis’ Adacel, appear safe and effective for use as booster shots after whooping cough immunity has waned. The FDA usually follows the recommendations of its advisory panels.
GSK is seeking to market Boostrix for people age 10 to 18, while Sanofi-Aventis wants to sell Adacel to a larger group of people age 11 to 64, according to a Reuters report.
Boostrix and Adacel are the first products to combine a whooping cough vaccine with the routine tetanus and diptheria booster shot given to adolescents.
Concern about whooping cough, also known as pertussis, has grown recently as reports of deaths from the disease are on the rise in the U.S. and older people who carry the bacteria can easily infect young, unvaccinated children.
