FDA opens safety review of injectable RSV drugs approved for babies and toddlers

By MATTHEW PERRONE

WASHINGTON (AP) — Food and Drug Administration officials have opened a safety review of two injectable drugs used to protect babies and toddlers from RSV , the respiratory virus that sends thousands of American children to the hospital each year.

The long-acting drugs from Merck and Sanofi are not vaccines, but the government review comes as health officials and advisers under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. roll back recommendations on routine childhood vaccinations.

A spokesman for Kennedy described the inquiry as a routine safety evaluation and said the FDA “will update product labeling if warranted by the totality of the evidence.”

The two drugmakers said in separate statements that they haven’t seen any new safety signals with their medications, w