The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is currently conducting a systematic review of approved enhanced seasonal influenza vaccines to inform a potential recommendation for adults 65 years of age and older, recommendations that have not changed since 2010.

In a meeting on February 23, ACIP for the first time officially acknowledged benefits of an Enhanced Influenza Vaccine (EIV) compared to standard egg-based influenza vaccines.¹ Seqirus’ FLUAD® QUADRIVALENT (Influenza Vaccine, Adjuvanted) is one of three vaccines classified by ACIP as an EIV and is part of its review. ACIP clearly stated that the overall evidence directly comparing EIVs with one another – based on data including millions of patients and multiple seasons – does not indicate superiority of one EIV over the others.1 ACIP’s presentation can be found here.¹

While the ACIP has not yet decided on whether a change in the current recommendation is warranted, ACIP has classified FLUAD QUADRIVALENT as an EIV based on data from multiple observational studies indicating that FLUAD QUADRIVALENT may perform better than standard influenza vaccines in patients 65 years of age and older. 

“Seqirus applauds the immense efforts and scientific review that ACIP has undertaken over the past two years to evaluate the Enhanced Influenza Vaccine category,” said Gregg Sylvester, Chief Medical Officer, Seqirus. “According to the CDC, older adults have an increased risk of influenza-related complications and severe outcomes.² Data from the recent ACIP systematic review support the benefit of an Enhanced Influenza Vaccine for this population. Seqirus is proud to support the public health benefit that an EIV category recommendation for older adults would provide.”

FLUAD QUADRIVALENT is specifically designed with MF59® adjuvant to address some of the factors impacting vaccine effectiveness in older adults.^3,4 In addition to clinical trial data, more than 20 years of real-world evidence supports the clinical effectiveness of FLUAD in adults 65 years and older across different influenza seasons with different study designs, clinical outcomes, and study limitations.⁵ More information from the CDC on adjuvanted flu vaccines can be found here.⁶