The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory panel voted Friday to change the recommendation for when children should get their first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine. Instead of a first dose within 24 hours of birth — as the CDC has advised for more than 30 years — the panel voted to recommend delaying it until a child is 2 months old for children born to mothers who test negative for the virus.

A federal vaccine advisory committee has voted to change a long-standing recommendation that all newborns in the United States receive the hepatitis B vaccine on the day they are born.

Merck (MRK.N), whose Recombivax HB has been a staple of the U.S. childhood immunization program, said it was "deeply concerned" by the decision of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice...