One dose of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine. – Matt Slocum / AP / SIPA
In the fight against the spread of the coronavirus, Moderna is also seeking to position itself on the vaccination of adolescents. For this, the American biotechnology company will file “at the beginning of June” an application for marketing authorization in the European Union for its vaccine against Covid-19 for 12-17 year olds.
At the moment, only the vaccine from Pfizer / BioNTech is authorized for 16-18 year olds in Europe. Pfizer has also applied for authorization for 12-16 year olds and has already obtained it in the United States.
The risk of the fourth wave
Considering that “by the summer, all adults wishing to be vaccinated will have received a first dose”, Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, believes in the Sunday newspaper that “it will then very quickly be necessary to target adolescents aged 12 to 17”. “The ideal would be to protect them before the end of August. If we do not vaccinate massively, the risk of a fourth wave cannot be ruled out, ”he explains.
From next week, the vaccine will be used in France outside vaccination centers, by doctors and pharmacists. A further step towards the accessibility of vaccines and “group immunity”, assures the one who has led biotech since 2011. Moderna is also currently testing the effectiveness of three different “reminders” (Wuhan strain, strain South African and a mixture of the two) against four variants of the coronavirus, trials for which Stéphane Bancel expects first results in early June, before other human trials in the summer. The objective is to “provide the data to regulatory agencies in August, for approval in September”.
Variants increase “the threat level”
In total, Moderna could produce three billion doses per year, which, added to the four billion predicted by Pfizer-BioNTech, would be “enough to vaccinate the entire planet with a first dose”. The problem is not therefore on the quantities of vaccine but rather on the variants which increase “the level of threat”. Stéphane Bancel therefore recommends “vaccinating with a third dose all those at risk from the end of the summer, in particular the residents of nursing homes”. According to him, it is important to anticipate because “two to three months of delay would lead to numerous hospitalizations and deaths”.