Moderna enters the dance. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved this Friday the administration to 12-17 year olds of the Covid-19 vaccine from the American biotechnology company. Until now, only Pfizer vaccine has been approved for use in adolescents in the European Union.
In early June, Moderna applied for a marketing authorization in the Union and in Canada for its vaccine against Covid-19, Spikevax, which uses the same mRNA technology as that of the Pfizer / BioNTech alliance. . The group said at the end of May that its remedy was “highly effective” in adolescents aged 12 to 17, according to the results of clinical trials on more than 3,700 participants of this age group in the United States. The serum produced in them an antibody response comparable to that seen in young adults aged 18 to 25 years.
Adolescents generally develop less severe forms of Covid-19 than older people, but they are not immune to infection and participate in the transmission of the virus within the population. This is why their immunization is necessary in order to help stop the epidemic, according to experts.
In teens, the administration of Spikevax will be the same as in people 18 years of age and over, two injections into the muscles of the upper arm, four weeks apart.