Washington, March 23 (BUS): Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine is working on infants, toddlers and preschoolers – and if regulators agree it could mean a chance to finally begin vaccinating young children by summer, the company announced Wednesday.
Moderna said in the coming weeks it will require regulators in the United States and Europe to allow two small doses for children under six.
The company is also seeking larger doses for older children and teens in the United States, the AP reports.
18 million children under the age of five are the only age group not yet eligible for vaccination. A competitor, Pfizer, currently offers child-sized doses for school-age children and full-strength shots for those 12 and older.
Pfizer is testing smaller doses for children under five, but had to add a third dose to its study when two didn’t prove strong enough. These results are expected in early April.
Vaccinating the youngest children “has been a fairly moving target over the past two months,” Dr. Bill Muller of Northwestern University, a pediatric studies investigator at Moderna, said in an interview before the company released its findings. “There is still, I think, an urgent need to try to do that as soon as possible.”
The younger the child, the lower the dose tested. Moderna said a quarter of the dose it’s using for adults works well for kids under 6 years old.
Moderna recorded approximately 6,900 tots in a 25-mcg dose study. Early data after two shots showed that young people developed levels of virus-fighting antibodies just as strong as young men getting regular strength shots, the company said in a press release.
Moderna said smaller doses were safe, and the main side effects were mild fevers like those associated with other commonly used children’s vaccines.
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