Kids 6 months and old­er are now el­i­gi­ble to re­ceive Omi­cron-spe­cif­ic boost­ers for Covid-19, as US vac­ci­na­tion rates among chil­dren re­main low.

The FDA on Thurs­day ex­tend­ed the emer­gency use au­tho­riza­tions for both Mod­er­na and Pfiz­er’s up­dat­ed bi­va­lent vac­cines, which in­clude mR­NA com­po­nents of the orig­i­nal coro­n­avirus strain and the BA.4 and BA.5 lin­eages.

The Omi­cron BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 strains are cur­rent­ly dom­i­nant in the US, ac­count­ing for more than 60% of all cas­es, ac­cord­ing to the CDC’s track­er.

The US has seen slow up­take of the new boost­er shots, and on­ly 12.7% of those 5 years and old­er have re­ceived the up­dat­ed dose, the CDC re­ports.

Vac­cine rates among very young chil­dren are es­pe­cial­ly low. De­spite be­ing el­i­gi­ble for a Covid shot since June, on­ly 6.4% of kids un­der 2 years old have re­ceived at least one dose. Among kids 5 to 11, who have been el­i­gi­ble since last Oc­to­ber, 39.2% have re­ceived at least one shot.

Most kids who were un­vac­ci­nat­ed back in Ju­ly had a par­ent who was open to vac­ci­na­tion (59.3%), ac­cord­ing to a CDC study con­duct­ed over the sum­mer. How­ev­er, a sig­nif­i­cant por­tion of un­vac­ci­nat­ed chil­dren (37.2%) had a vac­cine-hes­i­tant par­ent.

CDC di­rec­tor Rochelle Walen­sky said in Sep­tem­ber that a sol­id up­take of the bi­va­lent boost­ers could save thou­sands of lives and bil­lions of dol­lars, and the White House has en­cour­aged peo­ple to get vac­ci­nat­ed along with their an­nu­al flu shot.

“As this virus has changed, and im­mu­ni­ty from pre­vi­ous Covid-19 vac­ci­na­tion wanes, the more peo­ple who keep up to date on Covid-19 vac­ci­na­tions, the more ben­e­fit there will be for in­di­vid­u­als, fam­i­lies and pub­lic health by help­ing pre­vent se­vere ill­ness­es, hos­pi­tal­iza­tions, and deaths,” FDA Com­mis­sion­er Robert Califf said in a news re­lease this morn­ing.

Bi­va­lent boost­ers are now avail­able for chil­dren 6 months to 5 years old who com­plet­ed their pri­ma­ry se­ries of the Mod­er­na vac­cine at least two months ago, and chil­dren 6 months to 4 years old who haven’t yet com­plet­ed their three-dose pri­ma­ry se­ries of the Pfiz­er-BioN­Tech vac­cine. The boost­er will serve as the third 3-µg dose in that case, fol­low­ing two dos­es of the orig­i­nal Pfiz­er-BioN­Tech vac­cine.

Kids be­tween 6 months and 4 years old who have al­ready re­ceived three dos­es of the Pfiz­er-BioN­Tech vac­cine are not yet el­i­gi­ble for a boost­er. The FDA said the “da­ta to sup­port giv­ing an up­dat­ed bi­va­lent boost­er dose for these chil­dren are ex­pect­ed in Jan­u­ary,” and it has promised to re­view the da­ta as quick­ly as pos­si­ble.

Pfiz­er said in a state­ment on Thurs­day that it’s ready to ship dos­es “im­me­di­ate­ly up­on rec­om­men­da­tion by CDC.”

Boehringer Ingelheim uncorked some positive results suggesting that Spevigo can help prevent flare-ups in patients with a severe form of psoriasis, months after the drug was approved to treat existing flares.

Spevigo, an IL-36R antibody also known as spesolimab, met its primary and a key secondary endpoint in the Phase IIb EFFISAYIL 2 trial in patients with generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP), Boehringer announced on Monday. While the company is keeping the hard numbers under wraps until later this year, it said in a news release that it anticipates sharing the results with regulators.

AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi won an appeals court win on Monday, as the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit found that the companies cannot be forced to provide 340B-discounted drugs purchased by hospitals from an unlimited number of community and specialty pharmacies.

“Legal duties do not spring from silence,” the decision says as the court makes clear that the federal government’s interpretation of the “supposed requirement” that the 340B program compels drugmakers to supply their discounted drugs to an unlimited number of contract pharmacies is not correct, noting:

A US appeals court has ruled against Johnson & Johnson’s use of bankruptcy to deal with mounting talc lawsuits, deciding that doing so would “create a legal blind spot.”

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a previous bankruptcy court decision on Monday, calling for the dismissal of a Chapter 11 filing by J&J’s subsidiary LTL Management.

Faced with more than 38,000 lawsuits alleging its talc-based products caused cancer, J&J spun its talc liabilities into a separate company called LTL Management back in October 2021 and filed for bankruptcy, a controversial move colloquially referred to as a “Texas two-step” bankruptcy. Claimants argued that the strategy is a misuse of the US bankruptcy code — and on Monday, a panel of judges agreed.

The FDA has found a brand new director of the Digital Health Center of Excellence in Troy Tazbaz, a former senior vice president at Oracle.

According to Tazbaz’s LinkedIn, he took a five-month break after leaving an 11-year career at Oracle before joining the FDA in January. Stat News first reported the hire. Tazbaz also said on his LinkedIn that he biked all the way from Chesapeake Bay to the San Francisco Bay over 58 days during his career break.

New York City is investing $20 million in biotech this year in the form of a 50,000-square-foot “innovation space” at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, complete with offices, research laboratories and events and programming space to grow biotech startups and companies.

Mayor Eric Adams said during his State of The City Address last Thursday that there will be an “emphasis” on making more opportunities for women and people of color to further diversify the industry. The City first reported the news.