Sinovac says the vaccine is safe for children as young as 3 years old

TAIPEI, Taiwan – Sinovac said the COVID-19 vaccine is safe for children ages 3-17, based on preliminary data, and has submitted the data to China’s drug regulatory authorities.

More than 70 million injections of the Sinovac vaccine have been given worldwide, including in China.

China has approved its use in adults, but it has not yet been used in children because their immune systems may respond differently to the vaccine.

Early and mid-phase clinical trials involving more than 550 subjects showed that the vaccine would elicit an immune response, Gang Zeng, the medical director at Sinovac, said at a news conference Monday.

Two recipients developed a high fever in response to the vaccine, one a 3-year-old and the other a 6-year-old. The rest of the subjects experienced mild symptoms, Zeng said.

“It is very welcome to show that the vaccine is safe and would elicit a potentially useful immune response against SARS-CoV-2,” said Eng Eong Ooi, a professor at Duke NUS Medical School in Singapore who co-leads on the development of a separate Covid19 vaccine. However, he said the data publicly presented by the company was not enough to provide a conclusive response to the findings.

Children are much less likely to be seriously ill with COVID-19, but they are still at risk and can spread the virus. And while vaccination campaigns have targeted adults worldwide, children will need to be immunized to end the pandemic.

The Pfizer vaccine is approved for use from the age of 16 and is being studied between the ages of 12-16. Moderna has been studying the vaccine in children 12 and older, and last week announced a new study testing its use in children under 12 years old.

State-owned Sinopharm, which has two COVID-19 vaccines, is also investigating the effectiveness of its vaccines in children. The company said in January that it had submitted clinical data to regulators, although it was unclear whether it was for one or both vaccines.