Washington:
US biotech firm Novavax stated Monday it had began clinical trials of its proposed Covid-19 vaccine on children, in a plan that will involve up to 3,000 adolescents aged 12-17.
Far fewer children have been sick with Covid-19 compared to adults, and most have mild to no symptoms, but they can be infected and spread the virus.
Novavax stated the trials would test “the efficacy (and) safety” of the vaccine, with participants getting either the vaccine candidate or placebo in two doses, 21 days apart.
Participants will be monitored for up to two years right after their injections.
The Novavax vaccine has not but been authorized in any nation, like for adults, but the business plans to file for emergency authorization in Britain “in the second quarter of 2021”, followed by in the United States.
Novavax announced at the finish of January that clinical trials carried out in Britain involving 15,000 adults showed 89.3 % efficacy.
The Novavax vaccine, which utilizes distinct technologies from the doses currently extensively licensed about the world, is a protein-based vaccine engineered from the genetic sequence of the very first strain of the coronavirus.
It can be stored at a temperature involving 2 and 8 degrees Celsius (35 – 46.4 degrees Fahrenheit).
Other vaccine providers like Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer are also conducting trials in adolescents.
Europe’s medicines watchdog stated Monday it had begun evaluating the use of Pfizer/BioNTech’s vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds, right after a equivalent request in the United States.
Vaccine authorization for children is seen as a vital step towards reaching herd immunity.
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