The Food and Drug Administration unexpectedly canceled an annual meeting of its advisers to update next season’s influenza vaccines, an adviser on the panel and multiple officials tell CBS News, upending the usual process to start manufacturing next winter’s flu shots.
“We’re all left trying to understand what is going on. Why was this meeting canceled? It’s an important meeting. What’s the plan for flu vaccines this year,” Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the FDA advisory committee and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told CBS News.
Offit said he received the notification that the meeting was canceled shortly after 4 p.m. The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee was supposed to meet on March 13 to discuss how to update the shots for the next flu season, Offit said.