Shingles Vaccine for Younger Adults

FDA approves request to expand shingles vaccine to patients age 50 and older. The AP (3/25) reports, "The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday expanded approval of a shingles vaccine from Merck to patients between the ages of 50 and 59. The vaccine, called Zostavax (zoster vaccine live), is already approved for patients of 60 years and older." Bloomberg News (3/25, Peterson) reports, "'The likelihood of shingles increases with age,' Karen Midthun, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in the statement. 'The availability of Zostavax to a younger age group provides an additional opportunity to prevent this often painful and debilitating disease.'" According to Medscape (3/24, Jeffrey), the approval was based on a "multicenter placebo-controlled trial conducted in the US and four other countries among approximately 22,000 adults who were 50 to 59 years of age." HealthDay (3/24) noted, Zostavax reduced the risk of acquiring shingles by "about 70 percent, compared to people who received an inactive placebo," the FDA said. Commonly reported side effects included "injection-site redness, pain and swelling." However, WebMD (3/24, DeNoon) pointed out that the "biggest drawback to Zostavax is its cost. The catalog price is about $161.50, about 10 to 20 times the cost of flu vaccine." The Boston Globe (3/24, Kotz) "Daily Dose" blog noted that the expanded vaccine approval "doesn't solve the problem of the shortage of the vaccine." The limited supply may "become even more of a problem as a larger group of folks attempt to get vaccinated." MedPage Today (3/24, Petrochko) also covered the story.