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The American pharmaceutical company Moderna has begun a study of its COVID-19 vaccine in children under the age of 12, including babies up to 6 months.
Tuesday’s announcement comes exactly a year after the first adult received a test dose of the injection made at the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Now the injection is used in Puerto Rico, the United States and many other countries.
Moderna has also tested the vaccine in 12 to 17-year-olds, but has not yet published the findings. The research in younger children is becoming more complex, as researchers need to determine whether they use lower doses than adults and adolescents.
The study aims to test the drug in two phases in approximately 6,750 children in the United States and Canada: one to determine the best dose and the last in which the serum will be administered in two doses to any sample, while another part will receive a placebo.
“This pediatric study will help us evaluate the potential safety and immunogenicity of our COVID-19 vaccine candidate in this critical population,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement.
Due to the speed at which vaccines have been developed and the disease more seriously affecting older people, the United States does not have a vaccine that should be given to children under 18 (Moderna and Johnson & Johnson) or under 16 (Pfizer). / BioNTech).
Since late last year, Pfizer and Moderna have been conducting clinical trials of the vaccine in people over the age of 12 years, with sufficient volunteers and pending the presentation of the results to Federal Food and Medicines Agency (FDA).
The measures taken to ensure the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine in children are essential to both reduce the risk of severe cases of the novel coronavirus in children and improve the immunity of the general population from the virus to deny the possibility of transfer.
The US authorities suggested that if the results of the vaccine studies in minors are positive, high school students could be vaccinated this fall, while those with a lower grade could be vaccinated early next year.