Moderna says it has filed a request for emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine for use in adolescents aged 12 to 18.
The company's filing comes just over a month after it reported that the two-dose vaccine was 100% effective in preventing COVID-19 during a Phase 2/3 study of nearly 2,500 adolescents. That same study found that the vaccine was 93% effective in preventing the virus two weeks after a patient received a single dose.
“We are encouraged that the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine was highly effective at preventing COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 infection in adolescents," Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement. "We have already filed for authorization with Health Canada and the European Medicines Agency and we will file with regulatory agencies around the world for this important younger age population. We remain committed to helping to end the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Should the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA grant the request for emergency use authorization, it would make Moderna's vaccine the second COVID-19 vaccine approved for use in adolescents. Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine was approved for kids as young as 12 in May.
The approval of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine would boost the supply of doses available to teenagers, allowing them to get vaccinated over the summer before school resumes in the fall.