The following vaccines have been recommended by JCVI  for adults in the 2025/26 flu season:

• Adjuvanted inactivated influenza vaccine (aIIV)

• High-dose inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV-HD)

• Recombinant inactivated influenza vaccine (IIVr)

• Inactivated influenza cell-culture vaccine (IIVc)

• Inactivated influenza egg-culture vaccine (IIVe)

In your pharmacy you will see these vaccines labelled as trivalent or quadrivalent formulations. This tells us how many different virus strains the vaccine protects against. Quadrivalent protects against four strains of flu. Whereas, trivalent protects against three. This year more manufacturers are moving to trivalent formulations as the World Health Organisation (WHO) concluded B/Yamagata lineages (a strain of flu virus) are no longer circulating. Thus, immunity to them are no longer needed.

Community pharmacy has an important role in supporting and helping as many people as possible easily and conveniently access a flu vaccination service.

Ensure you refer to your National Service Specification and PGD/Protocol for any country / health board specific vaccines to use –  to ensure they are reimbursable as part of the NHS service.

It’s important you understand who should consider having a flu vaccine so you can engage with your customers and signpost to the service in your pharmacy. Most pharmacies across England, Wales and Scotland offer a flu vaccination free of charge on the NHS, providing the customer meets the eligibility criteria. Ensure you check with your service lead who is eligible for the free NHS flu jab.