Another good news comes from the pharmaceutical world and this time it concerns the younger age groups, those less affected by the serious forms of Covid-19 but unfortunately decisive in the transmission of the virus. Above all, Pfizer's announcement can mark a turning point for the return to school in the presence, without risks: the anti-Covid vaccine produced with BioNTech is also effective on adolescents. Indeed, it protects children aged between 12 and 15 years better than it does for adults, given the same dose. The study has reached phase III, the decisive phase prior to final approval: for this reason, Pfizer is now accelerating and plans to present the new data to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the American drug regulatory agency, shortly. an extension to the youngest of the authorization emergency use of his two-dose vaccine.
The trial, which has not yet been published in a scientific journal, was conducted on 2.260 American adolescents. The results show that the antivenom elicited strong antibody responses one month after the second dose, even surpassing the antibody responses recorded in 16- to 25-year-olds in previous studies. In the adolescent study, researchers observed 18 cases of Covid-19 among 1.129 participants who were given a placebo and no cases among 1.131 volunteers who received the vaccine. The vaccine is currently licensed in the United States for emergency use in people 16 years of age and older.
Also from the point of view of side effects, there is nothing new to report. If these results were confirmed, millions of American families (and perhaps also European ones, if the EMA's ok were to arrive and there were doses available) could soon return to normal. Now Pfizer and BioNTech have started a clinical trial of the vaccine in children under 12 years of age and just last week they started vaccinations in children aged 5 to 11.
