Moderna says its coronavirus vaccine is effective in teens
- In Moderna’s study of 3,732 adolescents aged 12 to 17, its vaccine was 100 per cent effective starting 14 days after receiving the second dose
- The company will submit the findings to the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorisation in early June
Moderna, whose vaccine is authorised for adults 18 and older, said it will submit the findings of its adolescent study to the US Food and Drug Administration and other regulators for emergency use authorisation in early June.
US regulators took about a month to review a similar study from Pfizer/BioNTech, which was authorised for ages 12-15 on May 10. If Moderna gets the same treatment, its authorisation would come in early July.
Most children with Covid-19 develop only mild symptoms or no symptoms. Yet children remain at risk of becoming seriously ill, and they can spread the virus. Widely vaccinating 12- to 18-year-olds could allow US schools and summer camps to relax masking and social distancing measures suggested by the CDC.
“We are encouraged that mRNA-1273 was highly effective at preventing Covid-19 in adolescents,” Stéphane Bancel, Moderna’s chief executive, said in a statement.
Moderna’s trial evaluated the vaccine in 3,732 adolescents aged 12 to 17, two thirds of whom got the vaccine and one third of whom got a placebo. The main goal was to produce an immune response on par with that seen in the company’s large, Phase 3 trial in adults, which was 94.1 per cent effective at preventing Covid-19.