Pfizer to test 3rd dose Covid vaccine for children under 5 years of age

Pfizer announced Friday that it would like to test a third dose of the anti – Kovid vaccine in children under 5 years of age, which could lead the company to immediately file an application for authorization for three doses in this unit by next year’s age.

As part of ongoing clinical trials, the American pharmaceutical giant has selected a dose of 3 micrograms per injection for children 6 months to 5 years of age. This is ten times less than the dose given to adults (30 micrograms), and even less than 5 to 11 years of age (10 micrograms).

In children 2 years to less than 5 years of age, a dose of 10 micrograms actually causes more fever than in older groups, pushing the company to choose a lower dose.

But with two injections of 3 micrograms, their immune response was found to be worse than that given by adolescence and adolescence.

Pfizer therefore decided to revise the protocol of its clinical trials to include a third dose, injected “at least two months after the second” (the first two will be injected over a period of 3 weeks, one from the other).

The booster dose has, in fact, been shown to increase the protection provided, in older populations.

This “adjustment” should not have any bearing on the expected schedule for filing an application for authority for these young children, intended for the “second quarter of 2022”, as announced by the person in charge of research, Kathryn Johnson, during the conference call. Vaccines in the group.

Pfizer announced Friday that it has started trials on 600 teens aged 12 to 17 to test the booster dose (10 or 30 micrograms).

Currently in the United States, booster dosage is only allowed for 16- and 17-year-olds, in addition to adults.