Chief Executive Officer of Pfizer Inc., Albert Bourla, said on Tuesday that the company expects to release clinical trial data on the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine in 6-month to 5-year-old children by the end of October.
However, he said, the Covid vaccine data for kids between ages 5 and 11 will come much sooner and is ready to be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration by the end of this month, afterward it will be left to the FDA to take their time and make the necessary decision.
The CEO of Pfizer made this known during an interview at Research America’s 2021 National Health Research Forum, according to CNBC.
This comes after parents have made their feelings regarding children’s vaccinations known. Parents have said that they are anxious to get their children vaccinated, especially considering how schools are due for reopening and the highly contagious delta variant has persisted to spread.
The delta strain has led to a surge in hospitalizations across the U.S., including among young kids who are currently ineligible to get the shots.
Recently, the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for teenagers and children as young as 12, was cleared to be administered by the FDA, while Moderna’s and Johnson & Johnson’s vaccines have only been authorized for adults. However, in Australia, Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine has been approved by Australian health authorities for children as young as 12.
FDA officials, last Friday, said they were intensifying efforts to support the approvals of Covid vaccines for kids under age 12. The FDA’s top vaccine regulator, Dr. Peter Marks, said last month the agency would move as swiftly as possible on approving the shot for kids under 12 once the companies submit data.
