Pfizer expects updated COVID-19 vaccine data for kids under 5 by April

A doctor shows vials of Biontech-Pfizer’s Comirnaty vaccine against COVID-19 at the Institute for Health and Food Safety of Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, December 16, 2021. REUTERS FILE PHOTO

NEW YORK — Pfizer Inc expects the latest results from a clinical trial for kids under the age of 5 of the COVID-19 vaccine it developed with Germany’s BioNTech SE by April, a top company scientist said on Wednesday.

“The study has been amended to give a third dose to everybody who’s less than five at least eight weeks after their last vaccination,” Dr. Alejandra Gurtman, a Pfizer vaccine researcher said at a meeting of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). She said the company aims to have data for the age group by the end of March or the beginning of April.

In December, Pfizer said it was changing the design of the trial because children between the ages of 2 and 4 who were given two 3-microgram doses of the vaccine did not have the same immune response that a larger dose of the vaccine generated in older children.

READ: FDA okays use of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to children 5-11 years old

Gurtman also said the company was studying a third dose of its vaccine in children ages 5 to 11, six months after their second dose.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is authorized in the United States for people age 5 and older. On Wednesday, ACIP backed booster shots of the vaccine for ages 12 to 15.