the US Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization for an updated version of novax's co9 vaccine targeting the jn1 strain of the virus approved for individuals age 12 and older the announcement led to a nearly 5% increase in Nova vaxes stock during late afternoon trading the FDA Center for biologics evaluation and research director Peter marks stated that this authorization provides an additional option for covid-19 vaccination novavax has not yet commented on when the updated vaccine will be available earlier this month the FDA also approved updated covid-19 vaccines from fiser and madna that Target the KP two variant despite the decline in prevalence of the JM one strain in the US the KP two variant now represents about three 1% while the newly dominant KP 3.1 one accounts for approximately 42.2% novax's traditional protein technology- based vaccine offers an alternative for individuals hesitant about mRNA vaccines despite a decline in demand for vaccines novax anticipates its sales performance will improve with overall demand for covid-19 vaccines in the US expected to be similar to the previous year