The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) staff reviewers said on Monday that updated COVID-19 vaccine boosters should target XBB subvariants for the 2023-2024 vaccination campaign.

The COVID vaccination campaign should feature a monovalent vaccine targeting either the XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16, or XBB.2.3, the staff reviewers said, ahead of a meeting of the FDA's panel of independent experts on Thursday.

Last year's COVID vaccine boosters featured both the original strain of the vaccine and Omicron in a so-called bivalent shot.

The panel's decision comes after an advisory group to the World Health Organization (WHO) in May recommended that COVID-19 booster shots for the year should be updated to target the currently dominant XBB variants.

COVID-19 vaccine makers like Pfizer/BioNtech, Moderna Inc and Novavax Inc are already developing versions of their respective vaccines targeting XBB.1.5 and other currently circulating strains.

(Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)