Moderna: She applied to the US for approval to use her vaccine in children under 6 years of age

Moderna submitted a request to the US regulatory authorities to approve the use of its coronavirus vaccine in children under 6 years of age, as it announced on Thursday.

If the Moderna vaccine receives US regulatory approval, it will be the first coronavirus vaccine available for people under the age of five, according to Reuters.

It is noted that the vaccine developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech has been approved for use in children five years and older. However, the results of clinical trials in children aged 2 to 4 years showed a weaker immune response than in adults, which forced the two companies to expand their study to include a third dose of the vaccine. According to Pfizer, the results will be available in April.

“This is an important category that is not covered,” said Paul Burton, head of Moderna’s medical department, at the request of the company to US regulators.

“There is no other vaccine, no other treatment that these young children can receive,” Burton said. vaccine in these children as soon as possible is the best possible ”.

Moderna published data from its clinical trial in March, which showed that its vaccine was safe and elicited an immune response in young children similar to that in adults, which was the aim of the study.

Importantly, the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, which has been shown to escape vaccines more easily than previous variants, was predominant during the clinical trial in children. The company announced that the vaccine, after two doses, was approximately 37% effective in preventing infection in children aged 2 to 5 years and 51% effective in children aged 6 months to 2 years.

Source: Capital

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