The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical company says that participants in their COVID-19 vaccine test trials are between the ages of 12 years old to less than 18 years old, and they expect to enroll close to 3,000 participants in total. The study will evaluate two vaccinations given 28 days apart, WCVB (ABC Boston) reports.
This new testing is taking place during the second and third phases of the larger vaccine trial. The vaccine being given to the children is the same vaccine being used on adults, Moderna says.
Last month, Moderna announced its plan to apply for authorization to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Monday and the European Medicines Agency (EMA), asking both to review an expanded data set showing its vaccine’s 94.1% effective rate at preventing COVID-19 and 100% effective rate at preventing severe cases of the virus, CNN reports.
The FDA is scheduled to meet with the advisory committee to review both Pfizer and Moderna’s applications in December, CNN reports. The United States is expected to see its first COVID-19 vaccinations take place “towards the latter part of December,” according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, via CNN.
