At the moment, the decision of regulators on the use of the vaccine for children 5-10 years is expected.
Pfizer and BioNTech on Thursday said they expect to deliver another 50 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine to the U.S. government by the end of April, while the country prepares to start vaccinating children.
This step was taken after a group of external consultants of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended on Tuesday to allow the use of the vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years. Now the regulator must make an official decision on this issue.
According to the companies, if permission is obtained, and the advisory group of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also makes a corresponding recommendation, they intend to immediately begin supplying the vaccine in a child dosage of 10 micrograms in accordance with the instructions of the U.S. government.
At the moment, the U.S. government has ordered 600 million doses of the vaccine for domestic use and another 1 billion doses for transfer to low- and middle-income countries.
Pharmaceutical companies expect to receive the first data of clinical trials of the vaccine among children aged 2 to 5 years and from six months to 2 years in the fourth quarter of this year or at the beginning of the first quarter of 2022.
