American pharmaceutical company Moderna said its COVID-19 vaccine showed safe and powerful immunity in children aged 6 to 11 years.
Moderna has released tentative results from a COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial in 4,753 children of that age.
According to the company, when children participating in the clinical trial were given 50 μg of the vaccine, half the adult dose, twice at 28-day intervals, they produced 1.5 times the level of antibody compared to younger adults.
Most of the side effects experienced by children 6-11 years of age who received the Moderna vaccine were mild to moderate symptoms such as fatigue, headache, fever, and pain at the injection site.
Although there were no cases of rare side effects such as myocarditis this time, local media pointed out that the trial scale was too small to determine whether rare side effects occurred.
Moderna did not disclose full clinical trial data.
The company plans to submit data to health authorities in Europe and other countries in the near future, including the FDA.
Moderna's announcement came a day before an external FDA advisory group discussed Pfizer-BioNtech's emergency use of a COVID-19 vaccine for ages 5-11.
For Pfizer's vaccine, it has now received emergency use approval for teenagers 12 years of age and older, and is expected to expand its coverage to those aged 5 years and older as early as next month.
On the other hand, Moderna has not been approved for emergency use for 12-17 year olds who applied for it in June.