Pfizer To Begin Testing Covid Vaccine On Children Below 12

New Delhi: American pharmaceutical company Pfizer on Tuesday said that a large study will begin to test its Covid vaccine in children below 12 and selected a dosing regime for the trial. 

The study will enroll as many as 4,500 children at over 90 clinical sites in the US, Finland, Poland, and Spain, the company said.
According to the Reuters report, Pfizer said it has selected a dose of 10 micrograms for children between 5 and 11 years of age and 3 micrograms for infants in the age group of 6 months to five.

The report stated that the data collected from clinical trials "is really showing that the vaccine is highly preventative" for young people.

Recently, European Medicines Agency approved the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccines for the age group 12 to 15 years, making it the first vaccine to get the green light for children. The Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine was "well-tolerated" in children and there were no "major concerns" in terms of side effects, the Amsterdam-based agency had informed.

Britain's medicines regulator Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for adolescents aged 12 to 15 after a "rigorous review" earlier this month. The Pfizer vaccine is already approved for use in people aged 16 and over.

Last month in May, the US had approved the 2-dose vaccine for kids ages 12 to 15. According to reports, the Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer and BioNTech’s request and authorized the use of the Covid-19 vaccine to kids ages 12 to 15 on an emergency use basis. 

In late March, the vaccine makers claimed that the dose of found to be 100 percent effective in a clinical trial of more than 2,000 adolescents. Until now, the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine was authorized for use in people 16 and older.

Experts believe that inoculating young people and children is a critical step towards reaching "herd immunity" controlling the coronavirus.