Moderna says its COVID-19 vaccine is protective and safe for children ages 6 to 11

Moderna Inc said on Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine generates a strong immune response and is generally well tolerated in children between the ages of six and 11, and the company plans to submit the data to regulators soon.

Moderna said its two-dose vaccine generated virus-neutralizing antibodies in children and that the safety was comparable to what had been seen previously in clinical trials in adolescents and adults.

A panel of FDA advisers will vote on Tuesday whether or not to authorize Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in children aged five to 11.

The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for adults over the age of 18 and has recently been approved for a third dose in some Americans.

However, the United States Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved the vaccine for use in adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17. Sweden has suspended the use of the Moderna vaccine for younger age groups after cases of heart inflammation in young adults.

Moderna said the majority of side effects in the trial, which had 4,753 participants, were mild or moderate in intensity, with fatigue, headache, fever, and injection site pain being the most common. .

The vaccines used in the trial were doses of 50 micrograms, half the strength used in the primary adult vaccine series. The 50 microgram dose is also allowed for booster use.

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