Moderna says its Covid-19 vaccine performs as well in children as it does in adults

Moderna says its Covid-19 vaccine performs as well in children as it does in adults

 

Moderna announced interim results of its Covid-19 vaccine for children younger than 6 last week.   The company said two 25-microgram doses of its Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 6 months through 5 years provided a similar immune response to two 100-microgram doses for adults 18 to 25, indicating that the benefit conferred to young adults is also conferred to young children.   The data showed "a robust neutralizing antibody response" and "a favorable safety profile," according to a company news release.   Based on the data, Moderna said, it will ask the FDA to authorize the use of the vaccine in this younger age group in the coming weeks.   “It's a huge priority for us. We have teams all around the world on this, working literally 24 hours a day. So, we're going to be trying to submit the application formally to the FDA, other regulators around the world, just as soon as we can, I think in a small number of weeks, as soon as we possibly can,” Dr. Paul Burton, Moderna's chief medical officer, said Monday.   The vaccine was not all that effective at preventing Covid-19 infections caused by the Omicron variant, which predominated in the US during the study. For children ages 6 months through 1 year, the efficacy was 43.7%. For children 2 through 5, the efficacy was 37.5%. Moderna said the lower efficacy was still statistically significant and consistent with how vaccinated adults have fared with the Omicron variant.   Last month, the FDA postponed a meeting of its vaccine advisers to consider Pfizer/BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine for children younger than 5 and requested additional data on third doses. The companies have said they expect that data to be ready by early April.