The Pfizer / BioNTech alliance filed on Friday in the United States a request to extend the emergency authorization of its Covid-19 vaccine to adolescents aged 12 to 15 years.
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It plans to make this request to "
other regulatory authorities in the world in the coming days
," said the two companies in a press release.
This extension request, filed with the US Medicines Agency (FDA), is based on data from phase 3 clinical trials on this age group, "
which have been shown to be 100% effective
" in preventing disease, they stressed.
At the end of March, the companies had published the results of their trials on 2,260 adolescents in the United States, which showed "
robust antibody responses
" after the injections.
The vaccine was also "
well tolerated and the side effects were generally consistent with those seen
In people aged 16 to 25, added Pfizer and BioNTech on Friday.
Read also: Covid-19: Pfizer / BioNTech announce a “100%” effectiveness of their vaccine in 12-15 year olds
This vaccine is currently authorized for people aged 16 and over.
Children are less exposed to severe cases of the disease, so their vaccination has not been a priority so far.
But they represent a large part of the population, and will therefore also need to be immunized in order to curb the transmission of the disease, experts argue.
The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, based on innovative messenger RNA technology, was the first vaccine against Covid-19 approved in the West at the end of 2020.