US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced on Thursday that its joint vaccine with German company BioNTech SE would begin trials on children under the age of 12. The vaccine is currently approved by US regulators for children 16 and older.
“Together with our partner BioNTech, we have announced a global study to further evaluate our COVID-19 vaccine in healthy children aged 6 months to 11 years,” said Pfizer CEO and Chairman Albert Bourla in a tweet. “We are proud to initiate this much needed study for children and families in anticipation of a potential vaccine option.”
Pfizer is the latest company to test its vaccine on young children, after Moderna announced trials with the same age group earlier this month. Johnson & Johnson also plans to test its vaccine on children and infants.
The two-stage BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine will first be tested at different dosages of 10, 20 and 30 micrograms in a phase I / II study with 144 participants. Pfizer spokesman Sharon Castillo said volunteers in the trial received their first shots on Wednesday.
The company will later continue with a late stage of 4,500 participants. Employment data is expected in the second half of 2021.
When can the vaccine be given to children?
Pfizer hopes the vaccine can be administered to young children in early 2022. So far, no coronavirus vaccine has been approved in the United States for children under the age of 16, and only the BioNTech-Pfizer injection is given to 16 and 17 year olds. oldies.
The BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine is currently being tested on children between the ages of 12 and 15 in both the US and Europe, and data from that trial is expected in the coming weeks.
Why should children be vaccinated against COVID-19?
While children don’t typically experience severe symptoms of the coronavirus, experts believe they should be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity. In the United States, for example, people under 18 make up about one-fifth of the 330 million US population.
“If we really want to achieve herd immunity, it will require a whopping 80 percent of our population to be vaccinated, and we really can’t do that without vaccinating children,” said Lee Savio, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) . Beers told AFP news agency earlier this month.
wd / sms (Reuters, AFP)