Pfizer and BioNTech on Monday asked US health authorities to authorize their Covid vaccine against Omicron for children aged 5 to 11. The new generation of anti-Covid vaccine targets both the original strain of the coronavirus, and the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the Omicron variant.
Pfizer and BioNTech on Monday asked US health authorities to authorize their anti-Covid vaccine specifically targeting the Omicron variant for children aged 5 to 11, the two groups announced in a press release. The request for emergency authorization has been sent to the United States Drug Administration (FDA) for a booster dose of 10 micrograms.
We completed, together with @Pfizerthe submission to the @US_FDA requesting Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of a 10-µg booster dose of the Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5-11. https://t.co/R6A2LfZtgbpic.twitter.com/QEVl2ChCmf
— BioNTech SE (@BioNTech_Group) September 26, 2022
In the event of a positive response from the FDA, the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), the country’s main federal health agency, will in turn have to issue their recommendations before the first injections are administered to children. A similar request for authorization will be sent in the coming days to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) specifies the press release.
Only those over 12 years old were eligible until then
The new generation of anti-Covid vaccine, called bivalent, targets both the original strain of the coronavirus, and the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the Omicron variant. They currently represent more than 90% of contamination in the United States. If children have been less affected by Covid-19 than adults, several hundred of them aged 5 to 18 have died in the United States since the start of the pandemic, according to CDC figures.
In late August, the FDA cleared versions of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s vaccines targeting Omicron, and the CDC subsequently recommended them, paving the way for a new recall campaign. But only people over the age of 12 for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and over 18 for the Moderna vaccine are authorized for the moment to receive this specific booster dose.